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Hlfred 'Cennyson 



Slitb XUuetrattons and Decorations 







Copyright, 1909, by 
STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1909 



THE MASON-HENRY PRESS 

SYEACUSE AND NEW YORK 



©CLA252774 




I]sr )vie)vioRiH]vi h. R- fy. 

Obit mdcccxxxtii 

Strong Son of God, tmmortal Love, 

^hom we, that have not seen thy face. 
By faith, and faith alone, embrace. 

Believing where we cannot prove; 



Chine are these orbs of light and shade; 

Chou madest Life in man and brute; 

Chou madest Death ; and lo, thy foot 
Is on the skull which thou hast made* 



Chou wilt not leave us in the dust: 

Chou madest man, he knows not why, 
Re thinks he was not made to die;» 

Hnd thou hast made him : thou art just. 




Chou seemest hutnan and divine, 

Che highest, holiest manhood, thou : 
Our wills are ours, we know not how ; 

Our wills are ours, to make them thine. 



Our little systems have their day; 

Chey have their day and cease to be : 
Chey are but broken lights of thee, 

Hnd thou, O Lord, art more than they. 



Cde have but faith : we cannot know ; 

for knowledge is of things we see; 

Hnd yet we trust it comes from thee, 
H beam in darkness : let it grow. 



Let knowledge grow from more to more. 
But more of reverence in us dwell ; 
Chat mind and soul, according well, 

JMay make one music as before, 



IN MeMORIHM 

But vaster, CCle are fools and slight; 
Qle mock thee when we do not fear 
But help thy foolish ones to bear; 

Relp thy vain worlds to bear thy light. 



forgive what seemed my sin in me ; 

^hat seem'd my worth since I began ; 

for merit lives from man to man, 
Hnd not from man, O Lord, to thee. 



forgive my grief for one removed, 

t^hy creature, whom I found so fair. 
I trust he lives in thee, and there 

I find him worthier to be loved, . 



forgive these wild and wandering cries. 
Confusions of a wasted youth ; ' 
forgive them where they fail in truth, 

Hnd in thy wisdom make me wise, 

. 1849 



I held it trutht with him who sings 
Co one clear harp in divers tones, 
Chat men may rise on stepping-stones 

Of their dead selves to higher things* 



But who shall so forecast the years 
Hnd find in loss a gain to match ? 
Or reach a hand thro' time to catch 

Che far-off interest of tears ? 



Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drowned, 
Let darkness keep her raven gloss : 
Hht sweeter to be drunk with loss, 

Co dance with death, to beat the ground, 



Chan that the victor Rours should scorn 
Che long result of love, and boast, 
^Behold the man that loved and lost. 

But all he was is overworn/ 




IN MeMORlHM 



u 



Old Y^w, which graspest at the stones 
Chat name the under-lying dead, 
Chy fibres net the dreamless head, 

Chy roots are wrapt about the bones* 



Che seasons bring the flower again, 
Hnd bring the firstling to the flock; 
Hnd in the dusk of thee^ the clock 

Beats out the little lives of men. 



O not for thee the glow, the bloom, 
Cdho changest not in any gale, 
J^or branding summer suns avail 

Co touch thy thousand years of gloom : 



Hnd gazing on thee, sullen tree. 

Sick for thy stubborn hardihood, 
I seem to fail from out my blood 

Hnd grow incorporate into thee* 





O Sorrow^ cruel fellowship, 

O priestess in the vaults of Death, 
O sweet and bitter in a breath, 

^hat whispers from thy lying lip ? 



*Zhc stars/ she whispers, 'blindly run ; 

H web is wov^n across the sky ; 

from out waste places comes a cry, 
Hnd murmurs from the dying sun : 



'Hnd all the phantom, feature, stands— 
CClith all the music in her tone, . 
H hollow echo of my own,— 

H hollow form with empty hands/ 



Hnd shall I take a thing so blind, 
Embrace her as my natural good; 
Or crush her, like a vice of blood, 

Qpon the threshold of the mind? 



8 



IN MeiMORIHM 



IT 



Co Sleep I give my powers away; 

]My will is bondsman to the dark ; 

X sit within a belmless bark, 
Hnd with my heart X muse and say: 



O heart, how fares it with thee now, 

Chat thou should^st fail from thy desire, 
Qlho scarcely darest to inquire, 

'Cdbat is it makes me beat so low ? ' 




Something it is which thou hast lost. 

Some pleasure from thine early years. 
Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears,' 

Chat grief hath shaken into frost] 



Such clouds of nameless trouble cross 
Hll night below the darkened eyes ; 
dith morning wakes the will, and cries, 

'Chou shalt not be the fool of loss/ 




IN MeMORIHM 




I sotnetimes hold it half a sin 

Co put in words the grief I feel; 
for words, like JS^ature, half reveal 

Hnd half conceal the Soul within* 

But, for the unquiet heart and brain, 
H use in measured language lies ; 
Che sad mechanic exercise, 

Like dull narcotics, numbing pain. 

In words, like weeds. III wrap me o'er, 
Like coarsest clothes against the cold: 
But that large grief which these enfold 

Is given in outline and no more. 



TI 

One writes, that 'Other friends remain,' 
Chat Xoss is common to the race'— 
Hnd common is the commonplace, 

Hnd vacant chaff well meant for grain. 




IN MeMORIHM 



Chat loss IS coininon would not make 
f^y own less bitter, rather more : 
Coo common ! JVever morning wore 

Co evening, but some heart did break. 



O father, wheresoever thou be, 

Cdho pledgest now thy gallant son ; 
H shot, ere half thy draught be done, 

r>ath stiird the life that beat from thee. 



O mother, praying God will save 

Chy sailor, — while thy head is bow^d, 
Ris heavy-shotted hammock-shroud 

Drops in his vast and wandering grave. 



Y« know no more than I who wrought 
Ht that last hour to please him well ; 
CClho mused on all I had to tell, 

Hnd something written, something thought; 



11 




Gxpecting still his advent home ; 
Hud ever met him on his way 
dith wishes, thinking, *here to-day/ 

Or *here to-morrow will he come/ 



O somewhere, meek, unconscious dove. 
Chat sittest ranging golden hair; 
Hnd glad to find thyself so fair, 

poor child, that waitest for thy love ! 



for now her father's chimney glows 

In expectation of a guest; 

Hnd thinking 'this will please him best,' 
She takes a riband or a rose; 



for he will see them on to-night ; 

Hnd with the thought her colour bums ; 

Hnd, having left the glass, she turns 
Once more to set a ringlet right; 



12 



IN MeMORlHM 



Hnd, even when she tum'd, the curse 
Had f aUeiit and her future Lord 
das drown'd in passing thro' the ford, 

Or kiird in falling from his horse. 

O what to her shall be the end ? 

Hnd what to me remains of good ? 

Co her, perpetual maidenhood, 
Hnd unto me no second friend* 

Til 

Dark house, by which once more X stand 
Rere in the long unlovely street. 
Doors, where my heart was used to beat 

80 quickly, waiting for a hand, 



H hand that can be clasped no more- 
Behold me, for X cannot sleep, 
Hnd like a guilty thing X creep 

Ht earliest morning to the doon 




Re le not here; but far away 

Che noise of life begins again^ 
Hnd ghastly tbro* the drizzling rain 

On the bald street breaks the blank day» 

Till 

H happy lover who has come 

Co look on her that loves him well, 
Cdho lights and rings the gateway bell, 

Hnd learns her gone and far from home; 




Re saddens, all the magic light 

Dies off at once from bower and hall, 
Hnd all the place is dark, and all 

Che chambers emptied of delight : 



So find I every pleasant spot 

In which we two were wont to meet, 
Che field, the chamber and the street, 

for all is dark where thou art not* 




IN MeMORlHM 



Yet as that other, wandering there 
Xn those deserted walks, may find 
H flower beat with rain and wind, 

^hich once she fostered up with care ; 

Bo seems it in my deep regret, 

my forsaken heart, with thee 
Hnd this poor flower of poesy 

Cdhich little cared for fades not yet* 

But since it pleased a vanished eye, 

1 go to plant it on his tomb, 
Chat if it can it there may bloom. 

Or dying, there at least may die. 



IX 

fair ship, that from the Italian shore 
Bailest the placid ocean-plains 
<JClith my lost Hrthur^s loved remains. 

Spread thy full wings, and waft him o*cv* 




IN MeiMORIHM 



80 draw him home to those that mourn 
In vain ; a favourable speed 
Ruffle thy mirrored mast^ and lead 

Chro' prosperous floods his holy urn. 



Hll night no ruder air perplex 

Chy sliding keel, till phosphor, bright 
Hs our pure love, thro* early light 

Shall glimmer on the dewy decks* 



Sphere all your lights around, above; 

Sleep, gentle heavens, before the prow ; 

Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now, 
JMy friend, the brother of my love; 



]VIy Hrthur, whom I shall not see 
Cill all my widowed race be run; 
Dear as the mother to the son, 

]VIore than my brothers are to me. 






IN MeiMORIHM 



I hear the noise about thy keel; 

X hear the bell struck in the night 
X see the cabin- window bright ; 

I see the sailor at the wheel* 



Chou bring^st the sailor to his wife, 

Hnd traveird men from foreign lands ; 
Hnd letters unto trembling hands; 

Hnd, thy dark freight, a vanished life. 



80 bring him : we have idle dreams : 
Chis look of quiet flatters thus 
Our home-bred fancies : O to us, 

Che fools of habit, sweeter seems 



Co rest beneath the clover sod. 

Chat takes the sunshine and the rains, 
Or where the kneeling hamlet drains 

Che chalice of the grapes of 6od; 



t? 



Chan if with thee the roaring wells 

Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine ; 
Hnd hands so often clasped in mine, 

Should toss with tangle and with shells. 

XI 

Calm is the morn without a sound, 
Calm as to suit a calmer grief, 
Hnd only thro* the faded leaf 

Che chestnut pattering to the ground : 

Calm and deep peace on this high wold, 
Hnd on these dews that drench the furze, 
Hnd all the silvery gossamers 

Chat twinkle into green and gold : 



Calm and still light on yon great plain 
Chat sweeps with all its autumn bowers, 
Hnd crowded farms and lessening towers, 

Co mingle with the bounding main : 




Calm and deep peace in this wide air, 
Cbese leaves tbat redden to the fall; 
Hnd in my heart, if calm at all, 

If any calm, a calm despair : 

Calm on the seas, and silver sleep, 

Hnd waves that sway themselves in rest, 
Hnd dead calm in that noble breast 

Cdhich heaves but with the heaving deep* 

XII 

Lo, as a dove when up she springs 

Co bear thro^ Reaven a tale of woe, 
Some dolorous message knit below 

Che wild pulsation of her wings ; 



Like her I go; I cannot stay; 

I leave this mortal ark behind, 

H weight of nerves without a mind, 

Hnd leave the cliffs, and haste away 



^9 





O^er ocean-mirrors rounded large^ 

Hnd reach the glow of southern skteSt 
Hnd see the sails at distance rise, 

Hnd linger weeping on the marge, 



Hnd saying ; *Comes he thus, my friend ? 
Is this the end of all my care ?* 
Hnd circle moaning in the air : 

'Is this the end ? Is this the end ? ' 



Hnd forward dart again, and play 
Hbout the prow, and bach return 
Co where the body sits, and learn 

Chat I have been an hour away* 

XIII 

Cears of the widower, when he sees 
H late-lost form that sleep reveals, 
Hnd moves his doubtful arms, and feels 

T>cr place is empty, fall like these; 




20 



IN MeMORIHM 

Cdhich weep a loss for ever new^ 

H void where heart on heart reposed; 
Hndt where warm hands have prest and 
closed, 

dilencet till X be silent too* 



CClhich weep the comrade of my choice, 
Hn awful thought, a life removed, 
Che human-hearted man X loved, 

H Spirit, not a breathing voice* 

Come Cime, and teach me, many years, 

I do not suffer in a dream ; 

for now so strange do these things seem, 
JMine eyes have leisure for their tears ; 




]My fancies time to rise on wing, 

Hnd glance about the approaching sails, 
Hs tho' they brought but merchant's 
bales, 

Hnd not the burthen that they bring. 



IN MeMORlHM 



XIT 



If one should bring me this report, 

Cbat thou badet toucb^d tbe land to-day, 
Hnd I went down unto tbe quay, 

Hnd found tbee lying in tbe port ; 



Hnd standing, muffled round witb woe, 
Sbould see tby passengers in rank 
Come stepping ligbtly down tbe plank, 

Hnd beckoning unto tbose tbey know ; 



Hnd if along witb tbese sbould come 
Cbe man I beld as balf -divine ; 
Sbould strike a sudden band in mine, 

Hnd ask a thousand things of home ; 



Hnd I sbould tell him all my pain, 

Hnd how my life had droop'd of late, 
Hnd he sbould sorrow o^er my state 

Hnd marvel what possessed my brain ; 




^z 




Hnd X perceived no touch of change^ 
]Vo hint of death in all his frame, 
But found him all in all the eame, 

X should not feel it to be strange^ 



Co-night the winds begin to rise 

Hnd roar from yonder dropping day : 
Che last red leaf is whirrd away, 

Che rooks are blown about the skies ; 

Che forest cracked, the waters curfd, 
Che cattle huddled on the lea ; 
Hnd wildly dashed on tower and tree 

Che sunbeam strikes along the world : 



Hnd but for fancies, which aver 

Chat all thy motions gently pass 
Hthwart a plane of molten glass, 

X scarce could brook the strain and stir 




23 




Chat makes the barren branches loud ; 
Hnd but for fear it is not so, 
Che wild unrest that lives in woe 

<Xlould dote and pore on yonder cloud 



Chat rises upward always higher, 

Hnd onward drags a labouring breast, 
Hnd topples round the dreary west, 

H looming bastion fringed with fire* 

XTI 

CClhat words are these have f alVn from me ? 
Can calm despair and wild unrest 
Be tenants of a single breast, 

Or sorrow such a changeling be ? 



Or doth she only seem to take 

Che touch of change in calm or storm ; 

But knows no more of transient form 
In her deep self, than some dead lake 



IN MeiMORIHM 

Chat holds the shadow of a lark 

Rung in the shadow of a heaven ? 
Or has the shock, so harshly given. 

Confused me like the unhappy bark 

Chat strikes by night a craggy shelf, 
Hnd staggers blindly ere she sink ? 
Hnd stunned me from my power to think 

Hnd all my knowledge of myself ; 

Hnd made me that delirious man 
Cdhose fancy fuses old and new, 
Hnd flashes into false and true, 

Hnd mingles all without a plan ? 



XTII 

Chou comest, much wept for : such a breeze 
Compeird thy canvas, and my prayer 
CClas as the whisper of an air 

Co breathe thee over lonely seas. 



:*x. 



:-,-^ 






IN MeMORrJM 



for I in epirit saw thcc move 

Chro* circles of the bounding sky, 
Ulcch after week : the davs go by : 

Come quick, thou bringest all I love 



Thenceforth, wherever thou may*st roam, 
jVIy blessing, like a line of light. 
Is on the waters day and night, 

3nd like a beacon guards thee home* 



80 may whatever tempest mars 

)Vlid-ocean. spare thee, sacred bark ; 
Hnd balmy drops in summer dark 

Slide from the bosom of the stars. 



60 kind an office hath been done. 

Such precious relics brought by thee; 

Che dust of him I shall not see 
Cill all mv widow'd race be run. 






:^:jcr 



26 



IN MeMORIHM 



XTIII 



'Cis well ; 'tis somctbing ; we may stand 
^here he in BngUsh earth is laid, 
Hnd from his ashes may be made 

Che violet of his native land. 



'Cis little ; but it looks in truth 
Hs if the quiet bones were blest 
Hmong familiar names to rest 

Hnd in the places of his youth* 



Come then, pure hands, and bear the head 
Chat sleeps or wears the mask of sleep, 
Hnd come, whatever loves to weep, 

Hnd hear the ritual of the dead. 



Hh yet, ev'n yet, if this might be, 
I, falling on his faithful heart, 
^ould breathing thro' his lips impart 

Che life that almost dies in me; 





^7 




Chat dies not, but endures with pain, 
Hnd slowly forms the firmer mind, 
Creasuring the look it cannot find, 

Che words that are not heard again* 



XIX 

Che Danube to the Severn gave 

Che darkened heart that beat no more; 

Chey laid him by the pleasant shore, 
Hnd in the hearing of the wave* 

Chere twice a day the Severn fills ; 
Che salt sea- water passes by, 
Hnd hushes half the babbling ^ye, 

Hnd makes a silence in the hills* 



Che Cdye is hushed nor moved along, 
Hnd hush'd my deepest grief of all, 
^hen f iird with tears that cannot fall, 

X brim with sorrow drowning song* 




zS 



IN MeMORIHM 

Che tide flows down, the wave again 
Is vocal in its wooded walls ; 
JMy deeper anguish also falls, 

3nd I can speak a little then^ 

XX 

Che lesser griefs that may be said, 

Chat breathe a thousand tender vows, 
Hre but as servants in a house 

Cdhere lies the master newly dead ; 

Cdho speak their feeling as it is, 

Hnd weep the fullness from the mind 
'It will be hard,' they say, *to find 

Hnother service such as this/ 



JMy lighter moods are like to these. 
Chat out of words a comfort win ; 
But there are other griefs within, 

Hnd tears that at their fountain freeze ; 



IN MeiMORlHM 

for by the hearth the children sit 

Cold in that atmosphere of Death, 
Hnd scarce endure to draw the breath. 

Or like to noiseless phantoms flit : ^ 

But open converse is there none, 
So much the vital spirits sinh 
Co see the vacant chair, and think, 

*Row good! how kind! and he is gone/,, 

XXI 

I sing to him that rests below, 

Hnd, since the grasses round me wave 
I take the grasses of the grave, 

Hnd make them pipes whereon to blow* 




Che traveller hears me now and then, 

Hnd sometimes harshly will he speak : 
'Chis fellow would make weakness 
weak, 

Hnd melt the waxen hearts of men/ 




Hnotber answers, Xet bim be, 

r>e loves to tnahe parade of pain, 
Cbat witb bis piping be may gain 

Cbe praise tbat conies to constancy/ 



H tbird is wrotb : *Is tbis an bour 
fbr private sorrow^s barren song, 
Slben more and more tbe people tbrong 

Cbe cbairs and tbrones of civil power ? 



'H time to sicken and to swoon, 

Cdben Science reacbes f ortb ber arms 
Co feel from world to world, and 
cbarms 

Rer secret from tbe latest moon ?* 



Bebold, yc speak an idle tbing : 
Yc never knew tbe sacred dust 
X do but sing because I must, 

Hnd pipe but as tbe linnets sing : 



31 




Hud one is glad; hcv note is gay, 

for now her little ones have ranged ; 
Hnd one is sad ; her note is changed. 

Because her brood is stoVn away* 



XXII 

€he path by which we twain did go, 

CClhich led by tracts that pleased us well, 
Chro' four sweet years arose and fell, 

from flower to flower, from snow to snow : 

Hnd we with singing cheered the way, 
Hnd, crown'd with all the season lent, 
from Hpril on to Hpril went, 

Hnd glad at heart from )VIay to JMay: 

But where the path we walk'd began 
Co slant the fifth autumnal slope, 
Hs we descended following Rope, 

Chere sat the Shadow feared of man ; 




3^ 



But where the path w« walked 
fi /f f\ began 

*h \ Co elant the fifth 

autumnal slope 
Hs we descended follow 
ing Rope 
tij Chere sat the Shadow fear'd 
of man 

y vHho brohe our fair companion 
ship, 
'Ind spread bis mantle darh 

and cold, 
Hnd wrapt thee formless in 
the fold, 
Hnd dulled the murmur on 
th5> lip. 

Hnd bore thee where I could 
not sec 
]Vlor follow, tbo' I walk in baste. 
Hnd think that somewhere 

in the waste 
Che Shadow sits and waits 

for me. 






CClho broke our fair companionsbip, 

Hnd spread his mantle dark and cold. 
Hnd wrapt thee formless in the fold, 

Hnd duird the murmur on thy lip, 

Hnd bore thee where X could not see 
]^or follow, tho' X walk in haste, 
Hnd think, that somewhere in the waste 

Che Shadow sits and waits for me» 

XXIII 

JS^ow, sometimes in my sorrow shut. 
Or breaking into song by fits, 
Hlone, alone, to where he sits, 

Che Shadow cloak'd from head to foot, 



Cdho keeps the keys of all the creeds, 
X wander, often falling lame, 
Hnd looking back to whence X came, 

Or on to where the pathway leads ; 



IN MeMORIHM 

Hnd crying, Row changed from where it ran 
Chro* lands where not a leaf was dumb, 
But all the lavish hills would hum 

Che murmur of a happy pan : 



^hen each by turns was guide to each, 
Hnd fancy light from fancy caught, 
Hnd Thought leaped out to wed with 
Chought 

6re Chought could wed itself with Speech ; 




Hnd all we met was fair and good, 

Hnd all was good that Cime could bring, 
Hnd all the secret of the Spring 

JMoved in the chambers of the blood ; 



Hnd many an old philosophy 

On Hrgive heights divinely sang, 
Hnd round us all the thicket rang 

Co many a flute of Hrcady* 



%m 



IN MeMORlHM 



XXIT 



Hud was the day of my delight 
Hs pure and perfect as I say ? 
Che very source and fount of Day 

Is dashed with wandering isles of night. 



Xf all was good and fair we met, 
Chis earth had been the paradise 
It never looked to human eyes 

Since our first Bun arose and set* 



Hnd is it that the haze of grief 

JMakes former gladness loom so great ? 

Che lowness of the present state, 
Chat sets the past in this relief ? 



Or that the past will always win 
H glory from its being far; 
Hnd orb into the perfect star 

Cde saw not, when we moved therein ? 



55 




IN MeMORlHM 



XXT 



I know that this was Life,— the track 
CClhereon with equal feet we fared; 
Hnd then, as now, the day prepared 

Che daily burden for the back* 



But this it was that made me move 
Hs light as carrier-birds in air; 
I loved the weight I had to bear. 

Because it needed help of Love: 



]Vor could X weary, heart or limb, 

^hen mighty Love would cleave in twain 
Che lading of a single pain, 

Hnd part it, giving half to him* 

XXTI 

Still onward winds the dreary way; 
X with it; for I long to prove 
]Vo lapse of moons can canker Love, 

Cdhatever fickle tongues may say. 



36 



IN MeiMORlHM 

find if that eye which watches guilt 

Hnd goodnesst and hath power to eee 
Slithin the green the mouldered tree^ 

Hnd towers fairn as soon as built— 



Oht if indeed that eye foresee 
Or see (in Rim is no before) 
In more of life true life no more 

Hnd Love the indifference to be, 

Chen might I find, ere yet the mom 
Breaks hither over Indian seas, 
Chat Shadow waiting with the keys, 

Co shroud me from my proper scorn* 



XXTII 

I envy not in any moods 

Che captive void of noble rage, 
Che linnet born within the cage. 

Chat never knew the summer woods : 



X envy not the beast that takes 
DCs licence in the field of time, 
Unfettered by the sense of crime, 

Co whom a conscience never wakes; 

]Vor, what may count itself as blest, 
Che heart that never plighted troth 
But stagnates in the weeds of sloth; 

]^or any want-begotten rest* 

I hold it true, whatever befall; 

I feel it, when I sorrow most; 

Xis better to have loved and lost 
Chan never to have loved at alt 

XXTIII 

Che time draws near the birth of Christ: 
Che moon is hid ; the night is still ; 
Che Christmas bells from hill to hill 

Hnswer each other in the mist. 




38 



IN MeMORIHM 

f^our voices of four hamlets round, 

■prom far and near, on mead and moor. 
Swell out and fail, as if a door 

^ere shut between me and the sound : 



each voice four changes on the wind. 
Chat now dilate, and now decrease, 
peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace, 

peace and goodwill, to all mankind. 



Chis year I slept and woke with pain, 
X almost wished no more to wake, 
Hnd that my hold on life would break 

Before I heard those bells again : 



But they my troubled spirit rule, 

for they controlled me when a boy; 
Chey bring me sorrow touched with joy, 

Che merry merry bells of ^wle* 




3^ 




IN MejMORIHM 



CClith such compeUing cause to grieve 
Hs daily vexes household peace^ 
Hnd chains regret to his decease, 

Row dare we keep our Christmas-eve; 

^hich brings no more a welcome guest 
Co enrich the threshold of the night 
CKith showered largess of delight 

In dance and song and game and jest ? 



Yet go, and while the holly boughs 
entwine the cold baptismal font, 
)Make one wreath more for Use and 
Cdont, 

Chat guard the portals of the house; 

Old sisters of a day gone by, 

Gray nurses, loving nothing new ; 
•Klhy should they miss their yearly due 

Before their time ? Chey too will die. 






^li 



^ 



'^-^7?^ 



IN MeMORIHM 



XXX 



CClitb trembUng fingers did we weave 

Che holly round the Christmas hearth; 
H rainy cloud possessed the earth, 

Hnd sadly fell our Christmas-eve. 



Ht our old pastimes in the hall 

Cde gamboird, making vain pretence 
Of gladness, with an awful sense 

Of one mute Shadow watching alt 



Cde paused : the winds were in the beech : 
Cde heard them sweep the winter land ; 
Hnd in a circle hand-in-hand 

Sat silent, looking each at each. 



Chen echo-like our voices rang ; 

CCle sung, tho' every eye was dim, 
H merry song we sang with him 

Last year : impetuously we sang ; 



4^ 



IN MeMORIHM 

Cde ceased : a gentler feeling crept 
Upon us: surely rest is meet: 
'Chey rest/ we said, 'their sleep is 
sweet/ 

Hnd silence followed, and we wept* 




Our voices took a higher range ; 

Once more we sang : *Zhcy do not die 
JVor lose their mortal s>mipathy, 

]Vor change to us, although they change; 

*Rapt from the fickle and the frail 
Clith gathered power, yet the same, 
pierces the keen seraphic flame 

from orb to orb, from veil to veiU' 



Rise, happy mom, rise, holy mom, 

Draw forth the cheerful day from night: 
O father, touch the east, and light 

Che light that shone when Rope was bom. 




^2 




^ben Lazarus left bis cbarncl-cave, 
Hnd botnc to JMary^s bouse retum*d^ 
Cdas tbis demanded— if be yearned 

Co bear ber weeping by bis grave ? 



*CClbere wert tbou, brotber, tbose four days ? * 
Cbere lives no record of reply, 
dbicb telling wbat it is to die 

Rad surely added praise to praise. 



f^rom every bouse tbe neigbbours met, 

Cbe streets were f ill'd witb joyful sound, 
H solemn gladness ever crown'd 

Cbe purple brows of Olivet* 



Bebold a man raised up by Cbrist I 
Cbe rest remainetb unreveard ; 
Re told it not; or sometbing sealed 

Cbe lips of tbat evangelist. 






r>er eyes are homes of silent prayer^ 
JS^or other thoughts her mind admits 
Butt he was dead, and there he sits, 

Hnd he that brought him back is there. 



Chen one deep love doth supersede 
Hll other, when her ardent gaze 
Roves from the living brother's face, 

Hnd rests upon the Life indeed* 



Hll subtle thought, all curious fears, 

Borne down by gladness so complete. 
She bows, she bathes the Saviour's feet 

Ulith costly spikenard and with tears. 



Chrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, 
Cdhose loves in higher love endure ; 
CClhat souls possess themselves so pure. 

Or is there blessedness like theirs ? 




44 



Lj^S^S:^ZJSt^(^^^^. 



IN MeMORlHM 



XXXIII 



O thou that after toil and storm 

JMayst seem to have reached a purer air, 
Cdhose faith has centre ever)nvhere, 

]Vor cares to fix itself to form, 



Leave thou thy sister when she prays, 
Rer early Reaven, her happy views ; 
]Vor thou with shadowed hint confuse 

H life that leads melodious days* 



Rer faith thro^ form is pure as thine, 
Rer hands are quicker unto good : 
Oh, sacred be the flesh and blood 

Co which she links a truth divine ! 




8ee thou, that countest reason ripe 
In holding by the law within, 
Chou fail not in a world of sin, 

Hnd ev'n for want of such a type* 




]VIy own dim life should teach me this. 
Chat life should live for evermore, 
6lse earth is darkness at the core, 

Hnd dust and ashes all that is ; 



Chis round of green, this orb of flame, 
fantastic beauty; such as lurks 
In some wild poet, when he works 

Without a conscience or an aim* 



^hat then were God to such as I ? 

'Cwere hardly worth my while to choose 
Of things all mortal, or to use 

H little patience ere I die ; 



Xwere best at once to sink to peace, 

Like birds the charming serpent draws, 
Co drop head-foremost in the jaws 

Of vacant darkness and to cease* 




p 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B 


m 


1 


IN MeMORIHM 


1 


m 


XXXT 


m 


1 


Yet if some voice that man could trust 

Should ttiurmur from the narrow house, 
*Che cheeks drop in ; the body bows ; * 

)VIan dies: nor is there hope in dust:* 


1 


1 


JMight X not say ? 'Yet even here, 

But for one hour, O Love, I strive 
Co keep so sweet a thing alive :* 

But I should turn mine ears and hear 


1 




Che moanings of the homeless sea, 

Che sound of streams that swift or 

slow 
Draw down BBonian hills, and sow 

Che dust of continents to be; 




1 


Hnd Love would answer with a sigh, 
*Che sound of that forgetful shore 
<Uill change my sweetness more and 
more, 

Ralf-dead to know that I shall die/ 




K 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B 


S 



47 




O tnct what profits it to put 

Hn idle case ? If Death were seen 
Ht first as Death, Love had not been, 

Or been in narrowest working shut, 



JMere fellowship of sluggish moods, 
Or in his coarsest Satyr-shape 
Rad bruised the herb and crushed the 
grape, 

Hnd basked and battened in the woods* 

XXXTl 

Cho^ truths in manhood darkly join 
Deep-seated in our mystic frame, 
CKe yield all blessing to the name 

Of Rim that made them current coin ; 



for Wisdom dealt with mortal powers, 
Cdhere truth in closest words shall f ail> 
^hen truth embodied in a tale 

Shall enter in at lowly doors. 



48 



IN MeMORIHlM 

Hnd 90 the CClord bad breath, and wrought 
CKith human hands the creed of creeds 
In loveliness of perfect deeds, 

IMore strong than all poetic thought; 

CClhich be may read that binds the sheaf, 
Or builds the bouse, or digs the grave, 
Hnd those wild eyes that watch the wave 

In roarings round the coral reef* 

XXXTII 

Clrania speaks with darkened brow : 

Xhou pratest here where thou art least; 
Chis faith has many a purer priest, 

Hnd many an abler voice than thou* 

'60 down beside thy native rill, 
On thy Parnassus set thy feet, 
Hnd hear thy laurel whisper sweet 

Hbout the ledges of the hill/ 



49 



IN MejMORlHlM 

Bnd my JMelpomene replies, 

H touch of shame upon her cheek ; 

*X am not worthy ev^n to speak 
Of thy prevailing mysteries ; 



*fov I am but an earthly JMuset 
Hnd owning but a little art 
Co lull with song an aching heart, 

Hnd render human love his dues ; 






*But brooding on the dear one dead, 
Hnd all he said of things divine, 
(Hnd dear to me as sacred wine 

Co dying lips is all he said), 



*X murmured, as I came along, 

Of comfort clasped in truth revealed ; 

Hnd loitered in the master's field, 
Hnd darkened sanctities with song/ 



IN MeMORlHM 



^ith weary steps I loiter on, 

XLM always under altered skies 
Che purple from tbe distance dies, 

JMy prospect and horizon gone. 




J^o joy the blowing season gives, 
Che herald melodies of spring, 
But in the songs I love to sing 

H doubtful gleam of solace lives* 

Xf any care for what is here 

Survive in spirits rendered free, 
Chen are these songs I sing of thee 

JSfot all ungrateful to thine ear. 



XXXIX 

Old warder of these buried bones, 

Hnd answering now my random stroke 
dith fruitful cloud and living smoke, 

Dark yew> that graspest at the stones 





IN MeMORIHM 

Hnd dippcst toward the dreamless bead, 
Co thee too comes the golden hour 
CClhen flower is feeling after flower ; 

But Sorrow— fixt upon the dead, 

Hnd darkening the dark graves of men,— 
Olhat whispered from her lying lips : 
Chy gloom is kindled at the tips, 

Hnd passes into gloom again* 

XL 

Could we forget the widowed hour 

Hnd look on Spirits breathed away, 
Hs on a maiden in the day 

Cdhen first she wears her orange-flower I 

CClhen crowned with blessing she doth rise 
Co take her latest leave from home, 
Hnd hopes and light regrets that come 

JMake Hpril of her tender eyes ; 





5^ 



IN MeMORIHM 



Hnd doubtful joys the father move, 
Hnd tears are on the mother's face, 
Hs parting with a long embrace 

She enters other realms of love; 




Rer office there to rear, to teach, 
Becoming as is meet and fit 
H link among the days, to knit 

Che generations each with each ; 



Hnd, doubtless, unto thee is given 
H life that bears immortal fruit 
In those great offices that suit 

Che full-grown energies of heaven* 



Ry me, the difference I discern ! 
Row often shall her old fireside 
Be cheered with tidings of the bride, 

Row often she herself return, 



IN MeMORIHM 

Hud tell tbcm all they would have told, 

Hnd bring her babe, and make her boast, 
Cill even those that missed her most 

Shall count new things as dear as old : 

But thou and I have shaken hands, 
Cill growing winters lay me low ; 
JMy paths are in the fields I know, 

Hnd thine in undiscovered lands* 




XLI 

Chy spirit ere our fatal loss 

Did ever rise from high to higher ; 
Hs mounts the heavenward altar-fire, 

Hs flies the lighter thro' the gross* 



But thou art turn'd to something strange, 
Hnd I have lost the links that bound 
Chy changes ; here upon the ground, 

]Vo more partaker of thy change* 



54 




Deep folly ! yet that this could be— 

Chat I could wing my will with might 
Co leap the grades of life and light, 

Hnd flash at once, my friend, to thee* 



for tho' my nature rarely yields 

Co that vague fear implied in death ; 
IS^or shudders at the gulfs beneath, 

Che bowlings from forgotten fields ; 



Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor 

Hn inner trouble I behold, 

H spectral doubt which makes me cold, 
Chat I shall be thy mate no more. 



Cho' following with an upward mind 
Che wonders that have come to thee, 
Chro* all the secular to-be. 

But evermore a life behind* 



55 




I vex my heart with fancies dim : 
Re still outstript me in the race ; 
It was but unity of place 

Chat made me dream X ranked with him. 



Hnd so may Place retain us still, 
Hnd he the much-beloved again, 
H lord of large experience, train 

Co riper growth the mind and will : 

Hnd what delights can equal those 
Chat stir the spirits inner deeps, 
^hen one that loves but knows not, 
reaps 

H truth from one that loves and knows ? 



XLIIl 

If Sleep and Death be truly one, 
Hnd every spirit^s folded bloom 
Chro' all its intervital gloom 

In some long trance should slumber on ; 



IN MeMORIHM 

dnconscious of the sliding hour, 
Bare of the body, might it last, 
Hnd silent traces of the past 

Be all the colour of the flower : 

80 then were nothing lost to man ; 
80 that still garden of the souls 
In many a figured leaf enrolls 

Che total world since life began ; 

Hnd love will last as pure and whole 
Hs when he loved me here in Cime, 
Hnd at the spiritual prime 

Rewaken with the dawning souU 

XLIT 

Row fares it with the happy dead ? 

for here the man is more and more ; 

But he forgets the days before 
6od shut the doorways of his head^ 



57 



IN MeiMORIHM 

Che days have vanished, tone and tint, 
Hnd yet perhaps the hoarding sense 
Gives out at times (he knows not whence) 

H little flash, a mystic hint; 



Hnd in the long harmonious years 

(If Death so taste Lethean springs), 
)May some dim touch of earthly things 

Surprise thee ranging with thy peers. 




If such a dreamy touch should fall, 

O turn thee round, resolve the doubt; 
JMy guardian angel will speak out 

In that high place, and tell thee alt 

Che baby new to earth and sky, 

Cdhat time his tender palm is prest 
Hgainst the circle of the breast, 

Has never thought that 'this is I:* 




But as he grows be gathers much, 

Hnd learns the use of %* and 'me/ 
Hnd finds *X am not what X see, 

Hnd other than the things I touch/ 



80 rounds he to a separate mind 

from whence clear memory may begin, 
Hs thro' the frame that binds him in 

T>\Q isolation grows defined* 

Chis use may lie in blood and breath, 

^hich else were fruitless of their due, 
Rad man to learn himself anew 

Beyond the second birth of Death* 

XLTI 

^e ranging down this lower track, 

Che path we came by, thorn and flower. 
Is shadowed by the growing hour. 

Lest life should fail in looking back. 



59 




So be it : there no shade can last 

In that deep dawn behind the tomb, 
But clear from marge to marge shall 
bloom 

Che eternal landscape of the past; 



H lifelong tract of time revealed ; 

Che fruitful hours of still increase; 

Days ordered in a wealthy peace, 
Hnd those five years its richest fields 




O Love, thy province were not large, 
H bounded field, nor stretching far ; 
Look also. Love, a brooding star, 

H rosy warmth from marge to marge* 

XLTII 

Chat each, who seems a separate whole. 
Should move his rounds, and fusing all 
Che skirts of self again, should fall 

Remerging in the general Soul, 



60 



IN MeMORIHM 

Is faith as vague as all unsweet : 
eternal form shall still divide 
Che eternal soul from all beside ; 

Hnd I shall know him when we meet : 

Hnd we shall sit at endless feast, 
enjoying each the other^s good : 
CClhat vaster dream can hit the mood 

Of Love on earth ? Re seehs at least 

Upon the last and sharpest height, 
Before the spirits fade away, 
Some landing-place, to clasp and say, 

'farewell ! Cde lose ourselves in light/ 

XLTIII 

If these brief lays, of Sorrow born, 
^ere taken to be such as closed 
Grave doubts and answers here 
proposed, 

Chen these were such as men might scorn : 




61 




IN MeMORIHM 

Rer care is not to part and prove; 

She takeSt when harsher moods remit, 
Cdhat slender shade of doubt may flit, 

Hnd makes it vassal unto love : 



Hnd hence, indeed, she sports with words. 
But better serves a wholesome law, 
Hnd holds it sin and shame to draw 

Che deepest measure from the chords : 

]Vor dare she trust a larger lay. 
But rather loosens from the lip 
Short swallow-flights of song, that dip 

Cheir wings in tears, and skim away. 

XLIX 

from art, from nature, from the schools. 
Let random influences glance. 
Like light in many a shivered lance 

Chat breaks about the dappled pools : 




6z 




Che lightest wave of thought shall lisp, 
Che fancy's tenderest eddy wreathe, 
Che slightest air of song shall breathe 

Co make the sullen surface crisp, 

Hnd look thy look, and go thy way 

But blame not thou the winds that make 
Che seeming-wanton ripple breaks 

Che tender-penciird shadow play* 

Beneath all fancied hopes and fears 
Hy me, the sorrow deepens down, 
^hose muffled motions blindly drown 

Che bases of my life in tears. 



Be near me when my light is low, 

^hen the blood creeps, and the nerves 

prick 
Hnd tingle; and the heart is sick, 

Hnd all the wheels of Being slow. 



IN MeMORIHM 

Be near me when the sensuous frame 

Is rach^d with pangs that conquer trust; 
Hnd Ome, a maniac scattering dust, 

Hnd Life, a fury stinging flame* 

Be near me when my faith is dry, 

Hnd men the flies of latter spring. 
Chat lay their eggs, and sting and sing 

Hnd weave their petty cells and die* 




Be near me when I fade away, 

Co point the term of human strife, 
Hnd on the low dark verge of life 

Che twilight of eternal day* 



Do we indeed desire the dead 

Should still be near us at our side ? 

Is there no baseness we would hide ? 
)Vo inner vileness that we dread ? 



64 



IN MeMORlHM 

Shall he for whose applause X strovet 
X had such reverence for his blames 
See with clear eye some hidden shame 

Hnd X be lessened in his love ? 




X wrong the grave with fears untrue : 

Shall love be blamed for want of faith? 
Chere must be wisdom with great 
Death: 

Che dead shall look me thro' and thro^ 

Be near us when we climb or fall : 

Ye watch, like 6od, the rolling hours 
Glith larger other eyes than ours, 

Co make allowance for us all* 



LII 

I cannot love thee as X ought, 

for love reflects the thing beloved ; 
)VIy words are only words, and moved 

Clpon the topmost froth of thought* 






SP 







IN MeMORlHM 

*Y«t blame not thou thy plaintive song/ 
Cbe Spirit of true love replied ; 
*Chou canst not move me from thy side, 

]Vor human frailty do me wrong. 

'Cdhat keeps a spirit wholly true 
Co that ideal which he bears ? 
CClhat record? not the sinless years 

Chat breathed beneath the Syrian blue : 

*So fret nott like an idle girl, 

Chat life is dash'd with flecks of sin* 
Hbide : thy wealth is gathered in, 

^hen Cime hath sundered shell from pearl/ 



Row many a father have X seen, 
H sober man, among his boys, 
dhose youth was full of foolish noise, 

Cdho wears his manhood hale and green : 



66 



IN MeiMORIHM 

Hnd dare we to this fancy give^ 

Cbat had the wild oat not been sown 
Che soil, left barren, scarce had grown 

Che grain by which a man may live ? 

Or, if we held the doctrine sound 
for life outliving heats of youth. 
Yet who would preach it as a truth 

Co those that eddy round and round ? 

Rold thou the good : define it well : 
for fear divine philosophy 
Should push beyond her mark, and be 

procuress to the Lords of RelU 

LIT 

Oh yet we trust that somehow good 
CClill be the final goal of ill, 
Co pangs of nature, sins of will, 

Defects of doubt, and taints of blood ; 




^7 




IN MeMORIHM 

Cbat nothing walhs with aimless feet; 
Chat not one life shall be destro/d, 
Or cast as rubbish to the void, 

^hen God hath made the pile complete; 



Chat not a worm is cloven in vain ; 
Chat not a moth with vain desire 
Is shriveird in a fruitless fire, 

Or but subserves another^s gain* 



Behold, we know not any thing; 

I can but trust that good shall fall 
Ht last— far off —at last, to all, 

Hnd every winter change to spring* 



80 runs my dream : but what am I ? 
Hn infant crying in the night: 
Hn infant crying for the light: 

Hnd with no language but a cry* 



68 






M 



1 falter where I firmly trod, 
Hnd falling with my weight 

of carc9 
Qpon the great world's 

altar stairs 
Cbat slope thro darkness up 
to 6od, 



^ 1 stretch lame hands of faith, 
^ and grope, 

Hnd gather dust and chaff, 
and call 
Co what I feel is Lord 
of all. 
Hnd faintly trust 
the larger hope. 




IN MejMORIHM 



LT 



Che wisht that of the living whole 
]^o life may fail beyond the grave, 
Derives it not from what we have 

Che likest God within the soul ? 



Hre 6od and JS^ature then at strife, 

Chat JVature lends such evil dreams ? 
So careful of the type she seems, 

80 careless of the single life; 



Chat Xt considering everywhere 

Rer secret meaning in her deeds, 
Hnd finding that of fifty seeds 

She often brings but one to bear. 



I falter where I firmly trod, 

Hnd falling with my weight of cares 
dpon the great world^s altar-stairs 

Chat slope thro* darkness up to God 



69 



IN MeiMORIHM 

I stretch lame bands of f aitbt and grope, 
Hud gather dust and chaff, and call 
Co what I feel is Lord of all, 

Hnd faintly trust the larger hope* 

LTI 

*8o careful of the type?* but no* 

from scarped cliff and quarried stone 
She cries, *H thousand types are gone ; 

X care for nothing, all shall go* 




*Chou makest thine appeal to me : 
I bring to life, I bring to death : 
Che spirit does but mean the breath : 

I know no more** Hnd he, shall he. 



]VIan, her last work, who seemed so fair. 
Such splendid purpose in his eyes, 
CClho roird the psalm to wintry skies, 

<nho built him fanes of fruitless prayer. 



IN MeiMORlHM 

Cdbo trusted God was love indeed 
Hnd love Creation's final law — 
Cho* feature, red in tooth and claw 

CClith ravine, sbriek'd against bis creed- 



Olbo loved, wbo suffered countless ills, 
CClbo battled for tbe Crue, tbe ^ust, 
Be blown about tbe desert dust, 

Or seard witbin tbe iron bills ? 



]Vo more ? H monster tben, a dream, 
H discord. Dragons of tbe prime, 
Cbat tare eacb otber in tbeir slime, 

Cdere mellow music matcb'd witb bim. 



O life as futile, tben, as frail! 

O for my voice to sootbe and bless ! 

Cdbat bope of answer, or redress ? 
Bebind tbe veil, bebind tbe veil. 



71 



IN MeiMORlHlM 



LTtl 



Peace ; come away : the song of woe 
Is after all an earthly song : 
peace; come away: we do him wrong 

Co sing so wildly ; let us go» 



Come ; let us go : your cheeks are pale ; 
But half my life I leave behind : 
JMethinks my friend is richly shrined ; 

But I shall pass ; my work will f aiU 



Yet in these ears^ till hearing dies, 
One set slow bell will seem to toll 
Che passing of the sweetest soul 

Chat ever looked with human eyes* 



I hear it now, and o^er and o*er, 
eternal greetings to the dead; 
Hnd *Hvc, Hve, Hve/ said, 

^Hdieu, adieu' for evermore* 



7^ 



W MeiMORIHJM 



LTIII 



In those sad words I took farewell: 
Like echoes in sepulchral hallSt 
Hs drop by drop the water falls 

In vaults and catacombs, they fell ; 

Hnd, falling, idly broke the peace 

Of hearts that beat from day to day, 
Ralf -conscious of their dying clay, 

Hnd those cold crypts where they shall cease. 

Che high JMuse answe/d : ^^heref ore grieve 
Chy brethren with a fruitless tear ? 
Hbide a little longer here, 

Hnd thou shalt take a nobler leave/ 

LIX 

O Sorrow, wilt thou live with me 
IVo casual mistress, but a wife, 
)VIy bosom-friend and half of life ; 

Hs I confess it needs must be; 



75 



IN MeMORIHM 

O Sorrow^ wilt thou rule my blood, 
Be sometimes lovely like a bride, 
Hud put thy harsher moods aside, 

If thou wilt have me wise and good* 

JMy centred passion cannot move, 
]^or will it lessen from to-day; 
But III have leave at times to play 

Hs with the creature of my love ; 

Hnd set thee forth, for thou art mine, 
^ith so much hope for years to come, 
Chat, howsoever I know thee, some 

Could hardly tell what name were thine. 



LX 



Re past; a soul of nobler tone: 

)VIy spirit loved and loves him yet. 
Like some poor girl whose heart is set 

On one whose rank exceeds her own* 



IN MeiMORlHM 



Re mixing with his proper sphere, 
8he finds the baseness of her lot, 
Ralf jealous of she knows not what, 

Hnd envying all that meet him there* 

Che little village looks forlorn ; 

She sighs amid her narrow days 
jMoving about the household ways. 

In that dark house where she was born. 



Che foolish neighbours come and go, 
Hnd tease her till the day draws by. 
Bt night she weeps, *I>ow vain am II 

Row should he love a thing so low?* 



If, in thy second state sublime, 

Chy ransomed reason change replies 
Cdith all the circle of the wise, 

Che perfect flower of human time; 




75 




Hud if thou cast thine eyes below, 
Row dimly charactered and slight, 
Row dwarf d a growth of cold and night, 

Row blanch'd with darkness must I growl 



Yet turn thee to the doubtful shore, 

CClhere thy first form was made a man ; 
I loved thee, Spirit, and love, nor can 

Che soul of Shakespeare love thee more. 

LXII 

Cho' if an eye thafs downward cast 

Could make thee somewhat blench or 

fail, 
Chen be my love an idle tale, 

Hnd fading legend of the past; 



Hnd thou, as one that once declined, 
Cdhen he was little more than boy. 
On some unworthy heart with joy, 

But lives to wed an equal mind ; 




7^ 



IN MeiMORlHM 

Hnd breathes a novel world, the while 
Ris other passion wholly dies. 
Or in the light of deeper eyes 

Is matter for a flying smile* 

LXIIl 

Yet pity for a horse o^er-driven, 

Hnd love in which my hound has part 
Can hang no weight upon my heart 

In its assumptions up to heaven ; 

Hnd I am so much more than these, 
Hs thou, perchance, art more than I, 
Hnd yet I spare them sympathy, 

Hnd I would set their pains at ease. 



80 mayst thou watch me where I weep, 
Hs, unto vaster motions bound, 
Che circuits of thine orbit round 

H higher height, a deeper deep* 



£\'ftj 



^W. 



M 



M 



m 



rm 



IN MejMORIHM 



LXIT 



Dost tbou look back on what hath been, 
Hs some divinely gifted man, 
Cdhose life in low estate began 

Hnd on a simple village green; 

Cdho breaks his birth^s invidious bar, 

Hnd grasps the skirts of happy chance, 
Hnd breasts the blows of circumstance, 

Hnd grapples with his evil star ; 

Cdho makes by force his merit known 
Hnd lives to clutch the golden keys, 
Co mould a mighty staters decrees, 

Hnd shape the whisper of the throne; 




mc 
^^^'^l 



Hnd moving up from high to higher. 

Becomes on fortune's crowning slope 
Che pillar of a people's hope, 

Che centre of a world's desire; 



IN MeMORlHM 

Yet f eelSt as in a pensive dream^ 

^hen all his active powers are still, 
H distant dearness in the hill, 

H secret sweetness in the stream, 

Che limit of his narrower fate, 

Cdhile yet beside its vocal springs 
Re played at counsellors and kings, 

Cdith one that was his earliest mate ; 



CClho ploughs with pain his native lea 
Hnd reaps the labour of his hands, 
0rtn the furrow musing stands ; 

*Does my old friend remember me?' 




79 



IN MeMORlHM 

Rnd in that solace can I sing, 

Cill out of painful phases wrought 
Chere flutters up a hap'py thought, 

Self-balanced on a lightsome tving: 



Since we deserved the name of friends, 
Hnd thine effect so lives in me^. 
H part of mine may live in thee 

Hnd move thee on to noble ends* 



LXTI 

You thought my heart too far diseased; 
You wonder when my fancies play 
Co find me gay among the gay. 

Like one with any trifle pleased* 

Che shade by which my life was crost, 
Cdhich makes a desert in the mind, 
Ras made me kindly with my kind, 

Hnd like to him whose sight is lost ; 




80 




mhoQc feet are guided thro* the land, 

^hose jest among his friends is free, 
^ho takes the children on his knee, 

Hnd winds their curls about his hand : 

Re plays with threads, he beats his chair 
for pastime, dreaming of the sky; 
Ris inner day can never die, 

Ris night of loss is always there. 

LXTII 

Cdhen on my bed the moonlight falls, 
X know that in thy place of rest 
By that broad water of the west, 

Chere comes a glory on the walls : 



Chy marble bright in dark appears, 
Hs slowly steals a' silver flame 
Hlong the letters of thy name, 

Hnd o^er the number of thy years. 




Ml 






IN nenoKvm 




Che mystic glory swims away; 

from off my bed the moonlight dies ; 

Hnd closing eaves of wearied eyes 
I sleep till dush is dipt in grey : 

Hnd then I know the mist is drawn 
H lucid veil from coast to coast, 
Hnd in the dark church like a ghost 

Chy tablet glimmers to the dawn» 

LXTIH 

CClhen in the down I sink my head, 

Bleep, Death^s twin-brother, times my 

breath ; 
Sleep, Death's twin-brother, knows not 
Death, 
f^or can X dream of thee as dead : 



I walk as ere I walked forlorn, 

CClhen all our path was fresh with dew, 
Hnd all the bugle breezes blew 

Reveillee to the breaking morn. 




Sz 



But what 19 this ? I turn about^ 

X find a trouble in thine eye, 

Cdhich makes wk sad X know not why, 
]Vor can my dream resolve the doubt : 

But ere the lark hath left the lea 
X wake, and X discern the truth ; 
It is the trouble of my youth 

Chat foolish sleep transfers to thee. 



LXIX 

X dreamed there would be spring no more, 
Chat JVature's ancient power was lost; 
Che streets were black with smoke and 
frost, 

Chey chattered trifles at the door : 

X wandered from the noisy town, 

X found a wood with thorny boughs : 
X took the thorns to bind my brows, 

X wore them like a civic crown : 



83 





X met with scoffs, I met with scorns 
from youth and babe and hoary hairs 
Chey caird me in the public squares 

Che fool that wears a crown of thorns : 



Chey caird me fool, they caird me child : 
X found an angel of the night ; 
Che voice was low, the look was bright ; 

Re looh'd upon my crown and smiled: 

Re reached the glory of a hand, 

Chat seemed to touch it into leaf : 
Che voice was not the voice of grief, 

Che words were hard to understand* 



LXX 

X cannot see the features right, 

CClhen on the gloom X strive to paint 
Che face X know ; the hues are faint 

Hnd mix with hollow masks of night ; 




84 




IN MeiMORIHM 

Cloud-towers by ghostly masons wrought^ 
H gulf that ever shuts and gapes, 
H hand that points, and palled shapes 

In shadowy thoroughfares of thought ; 

Hnd crowds that stream from yawning doors, 
Hnd shoals of puckered faces drive ; 
Dark bulks that tumble half alive, 

Hnd lazy lengths on boundless shores; 

Cill all at once beyond the will 
X heard a wizard music roll, 
Hnd thro' a lattice on the soul 

Looks thy fair face and makes it still. 

LXXI 

Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance 
Hnd madness, thou hast forged at last 
H night-long present of the past 

In which we went thro' summer france* 



85 



IN MeMORIHM 

Radst tbou sucb credit with the soul? 
Chen bring an opiate trebly strong, 
Drug down the blindfold sense of wrong 

Chat so my pleasure may be whole ; 

^hile now we talk as once we talked 

Of men and minds, the dust of change, 
Che days that grow to something strange, 

Xn walking as of old we walked 

Beside the river's wooded reach, 

Che fortress, and the mountain ridge, 
Che cataract flashing from the bridge, 

Che breaker breaking on the beach. 



LXXII 

Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again, 
Hnd howlest, issuing out of night, 
^ith blasts that blow the poplar white, 

Hnd lash with storm the streaming pane ? 



IN MeMORIHM 

Day, when tny crown'd estate begun 
Co pine in that reverse of doom, 
Cdhich sickened every living bloom, 

Hnd blurred the splendour of the sun ; 



CKho usherest in the dolorous hour 

Cdith thy quick tears that make the rose 
pull sideways, and the daisy close 

Rer crimson fringes to the shower ; 



^ho might*st have heaved a windless flame 
Up the deep Bast, or, whispering, played 
H chequer- work of beam and shade 

Hlong the hills, yet looked the same* 



Hs wan, as chill, as wild as now ; 

Day, marked as with some hideous crime, 
CClhen the dark hand struck down thro^ 
time, 

Hnd canceird nature's best : but thou, 




Lift as thou inayst thy burtben^d brows 
Cbro' clouds tbatdrencbtbemorningstar, 
Hnd whirl the ungarner'd sheaf afar, 

Hnd sow the sky with flying boughs, 



Hnd up thy vault with roaring sound 

Climb thy thick noon, disastrous day ; 
Couch thy dull goal of joyless grey, 

Hnd hide thy shame beneath the ground. 

LXXIII 

So many worlds, so much to do, 
80 little done, such things to be, 
Row know X what had need of thee, 

for thou wert strong as thou wert true? 

Che fame is quenched that I foresaw, 

Che head hath miss'd an earthly wreath 
I curse not nature, no, nor death; 

for nothing is that errs from law. 




88 



CCle pass ; the path that each man trod 
Is dim, or will be dim, with weeds : 
^hat fame is left for human deeds 

In endless age ? It rests with God* 

O hollow wraith of dying fame, 

fade wholly, while the soul exults, 
Hnd self -infolds the large results 

Of force that would have forged a name* 

LXXIT 

Hs sometimes in a dead man^s face, 

Co those that watch it more and more, 
H likeness, hardly seen before. 

Comes out— to some one of his race : 



80, dearest, now thy brows are cold, 
I see thee what thou art, and know 
Chy likeness to the wise below, 

Chy kindred with the great of old* 



IN MejMORIHM 

But there is more than X can see, 
Hnd what I see I leave unsaid, 
JS^or speak it, knowing Death has made 

Ris darkness beautiful with thee* 

LXXT 

X leave thy praises unexpressed 

In verse that brings myself relief, 
Hnd by the measure of my grief 

I leave thy greatness to be guessed ; 

^hat practice, howsoever expert 

In fitting aptest words to things. 
Or voice the richest-toned that sings, 

Rath power to give thee as thou wert ? 



I care not in these fading days 

Co raise a cry that lasts not long, 
Hnd round thee with the breeze of song 

Co stir a little dust of praise* 



IN MeMORIHM 

Chy leaf has perished in the green, 

Hnd, while we breathe beneath the sun, 
Che world which credits what is done 

Is cold to all that might have been. 

80 here shall silence guard thy fame ; 
But somewhere, out of human view, 
^hateVr thy hands are set to do 

Is wrought with tumult of acclaim* 

LXXTI 

Cake wings of fancy, and ascend, 
Hnd in a moment set thy face 
CKhere all the starry heavens of space 

Hre sharpened to a needle's end; 



Cake wings of foresight ; lighten thro' 
Che secular abyss to come, 
Hnd lo, thy deepest lays are dumb 

Before the mouldering of a yew ; 




Hnd if the matin songs, that woke 
Che darkness of our planet, last, 
Chine own shall wither in the vast, 

6re half the lifetime of an oak* 



6re these have clothed their branchy bowers 
^ith fifty )Mays, thy songs are vain : 
Hnd what are they when these remain 

Che ruined shells of hollow towers ? 

LXXTII 

Cdhat hope is here for modern rhyme 
Co him who turns a musing eye 
On songs, and deeds, and lives, that lie 

foreshortened in the tract of time ? 

Chese mortal lullabies of pain 

JMay bind a book, may line a box, 
JMay serve to curl a maiden^s locks, 

Or when a thousand moons shall wane 



9^ 



IN MeMORlHM 

H man upon a stall may find, 

Hnd, passing, turn the page that tells 
H grief, then changed to something else, 

Sung by a long-forgotten mind* 

But what of that ? )VIy darkened ways 
Shall ring with music all the same; 
Co breathe my loss is more than fame, 

Co utter love more sweet than praise* 

LXXTllI 

Hgain at Christmas did we weave 

Che holly round the Christmas hearth; 
Che silent snow possessed the earth, 

Hnd calmly fell our Christmas-eve : 

Che yule-clog sparkled keen with frost, 
]Vo wing of wind the region swept. 
But over all things brooding slept 

Che quiet sense of something lost* 



9* 



IN MeMORlHM 

Hs in tbe winters left behind, 

Hgain our ancient games had place, 
Che mimic picture^s breathing grace, 

Hnd dance and song and hoodman-blind. 

CClho showed a token of distress ? 
)Vo single tear, no mark of pain : 
O sorrow, then can sorrow wane ? 

O grief, can grief be changed to less ? 

O last regret, regret can die ! 

]So— mixt with all this mystic frame, 
T>cv deep relations are the same. 

But with long use her tears are dry. 



LXXIX 

^JMore than my brothers are to me,*— 
Let this not vex thee, noble heart! 
I know thee of what force thou art 

Co hold the costliest love in fee* 



IN MeMORlHM 

But thou and I are one in kind, 

Hs moulded like in f^ature^s mint ; 
Hnd hill and wood and field did print 

Che same sweet forms in either mind* 



for us the same cold streamlet curled 
Chro' all his eddying coves ; the same 
Hll winds that roam the twilight came 

In whispers of the beauteous world. 



Ht one dear knee we proffered vows. 

One lesson from one book we learned, 
6re childhood^s flaxen ringlet turned 

Co black and brown on kindred brows* 



Hnd so my wealth resembles thine, 
But he was rich where I was poor, 
Hnd he supplied my want the more 

Hs his unlikeness fitted mine* 



95 




If an>> vague desire should rise, 

Chat holy Death ere Hrthur died 
Rad moved me kindly from his side, 

Hnd dropt the dust on tearless eyes ; 



Chen fancy shapes, as fancy can, 

Che grief my loss in him had wrought. 
H grief as deep as life or thought, 

But stayed in peace with God and man. 

X make a picture in the brain ; 

I hear the sentence that he speaks ; 

T>c bears the burthen of the weeks, 
But turns his burthen into gain. 



Ris credit thus shall set me free; 

Hnd, influence rich to soothe and save. 
Unused example from the grave 

Reach out dead hands to comfort me* 



IN IMeMORIHM 



LXXXI 



Could X bave said while be was here, 
*J^y love shall now no further range; 
Chere cannot come a mellower change, 

for now is love mature in ear/ 

Love, then, had hope of richer store ; 

Cdhat end is here to my complaint ? 

Chis haunting whisper makes me faint, 
^JMore years had made me love thee more/ 

But death returns an answer sweet: 
* jMy sudden frost was sudden gain. 
Hud gave all ripeness to the grain. 

It might have drawn from after-heat/ 

LXXXII 

X wage not any feud with Death 

for changes wrought on form and face ; 

]Vo lower life that earth's embrace 
]Vlay breed with him, can fright my faith* 



97 



IN MeMORIHM 

6ternal process moving on, 

from state to state the spirit walhs ; 

Hnd these are but the shattered stalks, 
Or ruined chrysalis of one* 




JNTor blame X Death, because he bare 
Che use of virtue out of earth : 
X know transplanted human worth 

Cdill bloom to profit, otherwhere. 

for this alone on Death X wreak 

Che wrath that garners in my heart ; 
Re put our lives so far apart 

^e cannot hear each other speak. 

LXXXIII 

Dip down upon the northern shore, 
O sweet new-year delaying long ; 
Chou doest expectant nature wrong ; 

Delaying long, delay no more* 



98 




Dip down upon the northern 
shore, 
O eweet new-year delaying 

long 
Chou doest expectant 

nature wrong; 
Delaying long, delay no more 

(Hhat stays thee from the 

clouded noons, 
Chy sweetness from its 

proper place? 
Can tt^ublc lix>e with Hpril 
days. 
Or sadness in the summer 
moons? 



"x / 











CClhat stays thee from the clouded noons, 
Chy sweetness from its proper place ? 
Can trouble live with Hpril days, 

Or sadness in the summer moons ? 



Bring orchis, bring the foxglove spire, 
Che little speedweirs darling blue, 
Deep tulips dashed with fiery dew, 

Laburnums, dropping-wells of fire* 



O thou, new-year, delaying long, 

Delayest the sorrow in my blood, 
Chat longs to burst a frozen bud 

Hnd flood a fresher throat with song* 

LXXXIT 

CClhen X contemplate all alone 

Che life that had been thine below, 
Hnd fix my thoughts on all the glow 

Co which thy crescent would have grown ; 



99 




I see thee sitting crown'd with good, 
H central warmth diffusing bliss 
In glance and smile, and clasp and kiss. 

On all the branches of thy blood ; 



Zhy blood, my friend, and partly mine; 
for now the day was drawing on, 
CClhen thou should^st link thy life with 
one 

Of mint own house, and boys of thine 



Rad babbled * Uncle* on my knee; 
But that remorseless iron hour 
JMade cypress of her orange flower, 

Despair of hope, and earth of thee* 



X seem to meet their least desire, 

Co clap their cheeks, to call them mine; 
X see their unborn faces shine 

Beside the never-lighted fire* 




lOO 



IN MejMORIHM 

I see myself an honoured guests 

Cby partner in the flowery walk 
Of letters, genial table-talk, 

Or deep dispute, and graceful jest; 



CClbile now tby prosperous labour fills 
Cbe lips of men witb bonest praise, 
Hnd sun by sun tbe bappy days 

Descend below tbe golden bills 



Qlitb promise of a morn as fair ; 

Hnd all tbe train of bounteous bours 
Conduct by patbs of growing powers, 

Co reverence and tbe silver bair ; 



Cill slowly worn ber eartbly robe, 

Rer lavisb mission ricbly wrougbt. 
Leaving great legacies of tbougbt, 

Cby spirit sbould fail from off tbe globe ; 



lOS 




IN MeMORIHM 

Cdhat time mine own might also flee, 
Hs linh'd with thine in love and fate, 
Hnd, hovVing o'er the dolorous strait 

Co the other shore, involved in thee. 



Hrrive at last the blessed goal, 
Hnd Re that died in Roly Land 
^Xlould reach us out the shining hand, 

Hnd take us as a single souU 



^hat reed was that on which X leant? 
Hh, backward fancy, wherefore wake 
Che old bitterness again, and break 

Che low beginnings of content* 



LXXXT 

Chis truth came borne with bier and pall, 
I felt it, when I sorrowed most, 
Xis better to have loved and lost, 

Chan never to have loved at all— 




102 



IN MeMORIHM 




O true in word, and tried in deed. 
Demanding, so to bring relief, 
Co this which is our common grief, 

aihat kind of life is that I lead; 



Hnd whether trust in things above 

Be dimmed of sorrow, or sustained ; 
Hnd whether love for him have drained 

)VIy capabilities of love ; 



Your words have virtue such as draws 
H faithful answer from the breast, 
Chro* light reproaches, half exprest 

Hnd loyal unto kindly laws. 




]VIy blood an even tenor kept, 

Cill on mine ear this message falls, 
Chat in Tienna^s fatal walls 




103 




Cbc great Intelligences fair 

Cbat range above our mortal state, 
In circle round tbe blessed gate. 

Received and gave bim welcome tbere; 



Hnd led bim tbro* tbe blissful climes, 
Hnd sbow'd bim in tbe fountain f resb 
Hll knowledge tbat tbe sons of f lesb 

Sball gatber in tbe cycled times* 

But I remained, wbose bopes were dim, 
Clbose life, wbose tbougbts were little 

wortb, 
Co wander on a darkened eartb, 

Cdbere all tbings round me breatbed of bim. 

O f riendsbip, equal-poised control, 

O beart, witb kindliest motion warm, 
O sacred essence, otber form, 

O solemn gbost, O crowned soul I 





104 



IN MeMORIHM 

Yet none could better know than Xt 
Row much of act at human hands 
Che sense of human will demands 

By which we dare to live or die. 



dhatever way my days declinet 
X felt and feel, tho^ left alone, 
Ris being working in mine own, 

Che footsteps of his life in mine ; 



H life that all the )VIuses decked 

^ith gifts of grace, that might express 
HU-comprehensive tenderness, 

HU-subtilising intellect : 



Hnd so my passion hath not swerved 
Co works of weakness, but I find 
Hn image comforting the mind, 

Hnd in my grief a strength reserved. 





105 



IN MeMORIHM 

Likewise the imaginative woe, 

Chat loved to handle spiritual strife, 
Diffused the shock thro' all my life, 

But in the present broke the blow* 



]My pulses therefore beat again 

fbr other friends that once I met ; 
]Vor can it suit me to forget 

Che mighty hopes that make us men* 



I woo your love : I count it crime 
Co mourn for any overmuch ; 
I, the divided half of such 

H friendship as had mastered Cime; 



^hich masters Cime indeed, and is 
eternal, separate from fears : 
Che all-assuming months and years 

Can take no part away from this : 




106 




IN MeMORIHM 



But Sumtncr on the steaming f loods, 
Hnd Spring that swells the narrow 

brooks 
Hnd Hutumnt with a noise of rooks, 

Chat gather in the waning woods, 



Hnd every pulse of wind and wave 

Recalls, in change of light or gloom, 
f/ly old affection of the tomb, 

Hnd my prime passion in the grave: 



ffly old affection of the tomb, 

H part of stillness, yearns to speak; 

*Hrise, and get thee forth and seek 
H friendship for the years to come. 



'I watch thee from the quiet shore; 

Chy spirit up to mine can reach; 

But in dear words of human speech 
Cde two communicate no more/ 




107 



Hnd I, 'Can clouds of nature stain 
Che starry clearness of the free ? 
Row is it? Canst thou feel for me 

Some painless s>mipathy with pain ? * 



Hnd lightly does the whisper fall ; 

**Cis hard for thee to fathom this ; 

I triumph in conclusive bliss, 
Hnd that serene result of all/ 



80 hold I commerce with the dead ; 

Or so methinks the dead would say; 

Or so shall grief with symbols play 
Hnd pining life be fancy-fed* 



]Vow looking to some settled end. 

Chat these things pass, and X shall prove 
H meeting somewhere, love with love, 

X crave your pardon, O my friend; 




108 



IN MeiMORIHM 

If not 90 f resht with love as true^ 
I, clasping brother-bands^ aver 
X could nott if I would, transfer 

Che whole X felt for him to >>ou. 



for which be they that hold apart 
Che promise of the golden hours ? 
first love, first friendship, equal powers, 

Chat marry with the virgin heart* 



Still mine, that cannot but deplore, 
Chat beats within a lonely place. 
Chat yet remembers his embrace. 

But at his footstep leaps no more, 



)VIy heart, tho' widow'd, may not rest 
Quite in the love of what is gone. 
But seeks to beat in time with one 

Chat warms another living breast. 




109 






fzM 



Bhf take the imperfect gift I bring, 
Knowing the primrose yet is dear, 
Cbe primrose of the later year, 

Hs not unlike to that of Spring* 

LXXXTI 

Sweet after showers, ambrosial air. 

Chat rollest from the gorgeous gloom 
Of evening over brake and bloom 

Hnd meadow, slowly breathing bare 

Che round of space, and rapt below 
Chro* all the dewy-tasseird wood, 
Hnd shadowing down the horned flood 

In ripples, fan my brows and blow 

Che fever from my cheek, and sigh 

Che full new life that feeds thy breath 
Chroughout my frame, till Doubt and 
Death, 

III brethren, let the fancy fly 




no 




from belt to belt of crimson seas 

On leagues of odour streaming far, 
Co where in yonder orient star 

H hundred spirits whisper * peace/ 

LXXXTII 

I past beside the reverend walls 

In which of old I wore the gown ; 
I roved at random thro* the town, 

Hnd saw the tumult of the halls ; 

Hnd heard once more in college fanes 

Che storm their high-built organs make, 
Hnd thunder-music, rolling, shake 

Che prophet blazoned on the panes ; 

Hnd caught once more the distant shout, 
Che measured pulse of racing oars 
Hmong the willows ; paced the shores 

Hnd man>? a bridge, and all about 



1 II 




Che same gray flats again^ and felt 

Che same, but not the same ; and last 
Up that long walk of limes I past 

Co see the rooms in which he dwelt* 



Hnother name was on the door : 
X lingered ; all within was noise 
Of songs, and clapping hands, and boys 

Chat crashed the glass and beat the floor; 



Cdhere once we held debate, a band 

Of youthful friends, on mind and art, 
Hnd labour, and the changing mart, 

Hnd all the framework of the land ; 



^hen one would aim an arrow fair, 
But send it slackly from the string ; 
Hnd one would pierce an outer ring, 

Hnd one an inner, here and there ; 




1 iZ 



IN MeMORlHM 



Hnd last the master-bowman, he, 

Qlould cleave the mark* H willing ear 
CCle lent him* CKho, but hung to hear 

Che rapt oration flowing free 



from point to point, with power and grace 
Hnd music in the bounds of law, 
Co those conclusions when we saw 

Che god within him light his face, 

Hnd seem to lift the form, and glow 
In azure orbits heavenly-wise ; 
Hnd over those ethereal eyes 

Che bar of JMichael Hngelo* 

LXXXTIII 

Cdild bird, whose warble, liquid sweet, 
Rings 6den thro' the budded quicks, 
O tell me where the senses mix, 

O tell me where the passions meet, 



113 



IN MeMORlHM 

Whence radiate : fierce extremes employ 
Xlhy spirits in the darkening leaf, 
Hnd in the midmost heart of grief 

Chy passion clasps a secret joy : 

Hnd I— ]VIy harp would prelude woe— 
I cannot all command the strings ; 
Che glory of the sum of things 

^ill flash along the chords and go. 

LXXXIX 

CClitch-elms that counterchange the floor 
Of this flat lawn with dusk and bright; 
Hnd thou, with all thy breadth and 
height 

Of foliage, towering sycamore; 

Row often, hither wandering down, 

JMy Hrthur found your shadows fair, 
Hnd shook to all the liberal air 

Che dust and din and steam of town : 



114 




T>c brought an eye for all be saw ; 

Re mixt in all our simple sports ; 

Cbey pleased bim, f resb from brawling 
courts 
Hnd dusty purlieus of tbe law* 



O joy to bim in tbis retreat^ 

Xmmantled in ambrosial darh, 
Co drink tbe cooler air^ and mark 

Cbe landscape winking tbro* tbe beat : 



O sound to rout tbe brood of cares^ 

Cbe sweep of scytbe in morning dew, 
Cbe gust tbat round tbe garden flew, 

Hnd tumbled balf tbe mellowing pears ! 



O bliss, wben all in circle drawn 

Hbout bim, beart and ear were fed 
Co bear bim as be lay and read 

Cbe Cuscan poets on tbe lawn : 




^^5 




Or in the all-golden afternoon 
H guest, or happy sister, sung, 
Or here she brought the harp and flung 

H ballad to the brightening moon : 



]Vor less it pleased in livelier moods, 
Beyond the bounding hill to stray, 
Hnd break the livelong summer day 

CClith banquet in the distant woods; 



Cdhereat we glanced from theme to theme, 
Discussed the boohs to love or hate, 
Or touched the changes of the state. 

Or threaded some Socratic dream ; 



But if I praised the busy town, 
T>c loved to rail against it still, 
for Aground in yonder social mill 

de rub each other^s angles down. 




116 



IN MeMORIHM 

'Hud merge' he said ^in form and gloss 
Che picturesque of man and man/ 
Cde talked : the stream beneath us ran, 

Che wine-flask lying couched in moss^ 

Or coord within the glooming wave; 
Hnd last, returning from afar, 
Before the crimson-circled star 

Rad f airn into her father's grave, 

Hnd brushing ankle-deep in flowers, 
de heard behind the woodbine veil 
Che milk that bubbled in the pail, 

Hnd buzzings of the honied hours* 

XC 

Re tasted love with half his mind, 

]Vor ever drank the inviolate spring 
^here nighest heaven, who first could 
fling 

Chis bitter seed among mankind; 





117 




Chat could tbe dead, whose dying eyes 

Cdere closed with wail, resume their life, 
Chey would but find in child and wife 

Hn iron welcome when they rise : 



Xwas well, indeed, when warm with wine, 
Co pledge them with a hindly tear, 
Co talk them o'er, to wish them here, 

Co count their memories half divine; 



But if they came who past away, 

Behold their brides in other hands ; 
Che hard heir strides about their lands, 

Hnd will not yield them for a day. 



Yea, tho' their sons were none of these, 
]^ot less the yet-loved sire would make 
Confusion worse than death, and shake 

Che pillars of domestic peace* 




118 



MeMORIHM 

Bh dear, but come tbou back to me : 

Wbatever cbange tbe years bave wrougbt, 
I find not yet one lonely tbougbt 

Cbat cries against my wisb for tbee. 

XCI 

^ben rosy plumelets tuft tbe larcb, 

Hnd rarely pipes tbe mounted tbrusb; 
Or underneatb tbe barren busb 

flits by tbe sea-blue bird of )VIarcb; 

Come, wear tbe form by wbicb X know 
Cby spirit In time among tby peers ; 
Cbe bope of unaccomptisb^d years 

Be large and lucid round tby brow. 

CClben summer^s bourly-mellowing cbange 
jVIay breatbe, witb many roses sweet, 
Clpon tbe tbousand waves of wbeat, 

Cbat ripple round tbe lonely grange; 



119 



Come : not in watches of the night. 

But where the sunbeam broodeth warm, 
Come, beauteous in thine after form, 

Hnd like a finer light in light* 

XCH 

If any vision should reveal 

Chy likeness, X might count it vain 
Hs but the canker of the brain ; 

Y^t tho' it spake and made appeal 

Co chances where our lots were cast 
Cogether in the days behind, 
I might but say, I hear a wind 

Of memory murmuring the past. 

Yea, tho^ it spake and bared to view 
H fact within the coming year : 
Hnd tho^ the months, revolving near, 

Should prove the phantom warning true, 



120 



IN MeMORIHM 

Zhcy might not seem thy prophecies, 
But spiritual presentiments, 
Hnd such refraction of events 

Hs often rises ere they rise* 

xcm 

X shall not see thee* Dare X say 
)Vo spirit ever brake the band 
Chat stays him from the native land 

Cdhere first he walked when claspt in clay ? 

1^0 visual shade of some one lost. 

But he, the Spirit himself, may come 
Adhere all the nerve of sense is numb ; 

Spirit to Spirit, 6host to Ghost* 

O, therefore from thy sightless range 
CClith gods in unconjectured bliss, 
O, from the distance of the abyss 

Of tenfold-complicated change. 



121 



es 



ma 






'yM 



Dcscendt and touchy and enter ; hear 

Che wish too strong for words to name ; 
Chat in this blindness of the frame 

]VIy Ghost may feel that thine is nean 

XCIT 

Row pure at heart and sound in head, 
^ith what divine affections bold 
Should be the man whose thought would 
hold 

Hn hour's communion with the dead* 



Xn vain shalt thou, or any, call 

Che spirits from their golden day, 
Sxcept, like them, thou too canst say 

]VIy spirit is at peace with alt 



Chey haunt the silence of the breast, 
Imaginations calm and fair, 
Che memory like a cloudless air, 

Che conscience as a sea at rest: 




i22 




But when the heart is full of din, 

Hnd doubt beside the portal waits, 
Chey can but listen at the gates, 

Hnd hear the household jar within* 



By night we lingered on the lawn, 
for underfoot the herb was dry ; 
Hnd genial warmth ; and o'er the sky 

Che silvery haze of summer drawn ; 

Hnd calm that let the tapers burn 

Unwavering : not a cricket chirr'd : 
Che brook alone far-off was heard, 

Hnd on the board the fluttering urn : 

Hnd bats went round in fragrant skies, 
Hnd wheeled or lit the filmy shapes 
Chat haunt the dusk, with ermine capes 

Hnd woolly breasts and beaded eyes; 





iZZ 




IN MeMORIHM 

mhiU now we sang old songs that pealed 
from knoU to knoU, where, couch'd at 

ease, 
Che white kine glimmered, and the trees 

Laid their dark arms about the f ield. 



But when those others, one by one, 

dithdrewthemselves from me and night. 
End in the house light after light 

^ent out, and X was all alone. 



H hunger seized my heart ; I read 

Of that glad year which once had been. 
In those f all'n leaves which kept their 
green, 

Che noble letters of the dead: 



Hnd strangely on the silence broke 

Che silent-speaking words, and strange 
Cdas love's dumb cry defying change 

Co test his worth; and strangely spoke 



iM 




IN MeMORIHM 

Che faith, the vigour, bold to dwell 

On doubts that drive the coward back, 
Hnd keen thro' wordy snares to track 

Suggestion to her inmost cell. 

80 word by word, and line by line, 

Che dead man touched me from the past, 
Hnd all at once it seem'd at last 

Che living soul was flashed on mine, 



Hnd mine in this was wound, and whirled 
Hbout empyreal heights of thought, 
Hnd came on that which is, and caught 

Che deep pulsations of the world, 

TEonian music measuring out 

Che steps of Cime— the shocks of 

Chance- 
Che blows of Death. Ht length my 
trance 
Cdas cancelled, stricken thro' with doubt. 



1^5 



Taguc words I but ah, how hard to frame 
In matter-moulded forms of speech. 
Or ev^n for intellect to reach 

Chro' memory that which I became: 

Cill now the doubtful dusk revealed 

Che knolls once more where, couched at 

ease, 
Che white kine glimmered, and the trees 

Laid their dark arms about the field : 



Hnd sucked from out the distant gloom 
H breeze began to tremble o^er 
Che large leaves of the sycamore, 

Hnd fluctuate all the still perfume. 



Hnd gathering f reshlier overhead, 

Rock'd the f ull-f oliaged elms and swung 
Che heavy-folded rose, and flung 

Che lilies to and fro and said 




1^6 



tAtirii a^ [ t&tiii i t4f i r^i'fflMraBfc. ii g i . ' ' ,a 

1 know not; one indeed 1 hncw 
In many a subtle queetion 

Tcrsed, 
CCJbo touched a jarring l^pre 

at first, 
But ever strode to make 
it true: 

perplext in faith, but 
pure in deeds, 
' ij Ht last he beat bis 

music out. 
Chcre lives more faith 
in honest doubt, 
6eUcx>c me, than in 

half the creeds. 





*Zhc dawn, the dawn/ and died away; 
Hnd 8a9t and Cdest, without a breath, 
)VIixt their dim lights, like life and death, 

Co broaden into boundless day, 

XCTI 

You say, but with no touch of scorn, 

Sweet-hearted, you, whose light-blue eyes 
Hre tender over drowning flies, 

You tell me doubt is Devil-born. 



I know not : one indeed X knew 

In many a subtle question versed 
CClho touched a jarring lyre at first, 

But ever strove to make it true : 



perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, 
Ht last he beat his music out. 
Chere lives more faith in honest doubt, 

Believe me, than in half the creeds. 



i27 




Re fought bis doubts and gatbcr'd strengtb, 
Re would not make bis judgment blind. 
Re faced tbe spectres of tbe mind 

Hnd laid tbem : tbus be came at lengtb 



Co find a stronger f aitb bis own ; 

Hnd power was witb bim in tbe nigbt, 
Cdbicb makes tbe darkness and tbe ligbt, 

Hnd dwells not in tbe ligbt alone, 

But in tbe darkness and tbe cloud, 
Hs over Sinai^s peaks of old, 
^bile Israel made tbeir gods of gold, 

Hltbo' tbe trumpet blew so loud, 

XCTII 

JMy love bas talked witb rocks and trees ; 
Re finds on misty mountain-ground 
Ris own vast sbadow glory-crown'd ; 

Re sees bimself in all be sees. 



128 



IN MeiMORIHM 

Cwo partners of a married life — 

I look'd on these and thought of thee 
In vastness and in mystery, 

Hnd of my spirit as of a wif e^ 



Chese two— they dwelt with eye on eye, 
Cheir hearts of old ha\)e beat in tune, 
Cheir meetings made December Juw, 

Cheir every parting was to die* 



Cheir love has never passed away ; 
Che days she never can forget 
Hre earnest that he loves her yet, 

Cdhate'er the faithless people say. 



Rer life is lone, he sits apart, 

Re loves her yet, she will not weep, 
Cho' rapt in matters darh and deep 

Re seems to slight her simple heart. 



i29 




5#k= 



i 



p 



Re thrids the labyrinth of the mind, 
De reads the secret of the star, 
F>e seems so near and yet so far, 

Re looks so cold : she thinks him kind. 



She keeps the gift of years before, 
H withered violet is her bliss : 
She knows not what his greatness is, 

for that, for all, she loves him more* 



for him she plays, to him she sings 
Of early faith and plighted vows ; 
She knows but matters of the house, 

Hnd he, he knows a thousand things* 



Rer faith is f ixt and cannot move, 

She darkly feels him great and wise, 
She dwells on him with faithful eyes, 

*X cannot understand : X love/ 







ISO 




XCTIH 

You leave us : you will see the Rhinet 
Hnd those fair hills I sailed below, 
Cdhen I was there with him ; and go 

By summer belts of wheat and vine 

Co where he breathed his latest breath, 
Chat City* Hll her splendour seems 
]Vo livelier than the wisp that gleams 

On Lethe in the eyes of Death* 

Let her great Danube rolling fair 

Unwind her isles, unmarked of me: 
I have not seen^ X will not see 

Vienna ; rather dream that there, 



m. 



H treble darkness, €vil haunts 

Che birth, the bridal ; friend from 

friend 
Is of tener parted, fathers bend 

Hbove more graves, a thousand wants 




131 




6iiarr at the heels of men, and prey 

By each cold hearth, and sadness flings 
Rer shadow on the blaze of kings : 

Hnd yet myself have heard him say, 



Chat not in any mother town 

Cdith statelier progress to and fro 
Che double tides of chariots flow 

By park and suburb under brown 



Of lustier leaves ; nor more content, 
Re told me, lives in any crowd, 
CClhen all is gay with lamps, and loud 

Cdith sport and song, in booth and tent. 



Imperial halls, or open plain ; 

Hnd wheels the circled dance, and breaks 
Che rocket molten into flakes 

Of crimson or in emerald rain. 




isz 



IN MeiMORIHM 



XCIX 



Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again, 
80 loud with voices of the birds, 
80 thick with lowings of the herds. 

Day, when I lost the flower of men ; 

Cdho tremblest thro* thy darkling red 

On yon swoU'n brook that bubbles fast 
By meadows breathing of the past, 

Hnd woodlands holy to the dead; 

<iClho murmurest in the f oliaged eaves 
H song that slights the coming care, 
Hnd Hutumn laying here and there 

H fiery finger on the leaves ; 

Cdho wakenest with thy balmy breath 
Co myriads on the genial earth, 
JMemories of bridal, or of birth 

Hnd unto myriads more, of death* 



133 




O wheresoever those may be^ 

Betwixt the slumber of the poles, 
Co-day they count as kindred souls ; 

Chey know me not, but mourn with me^ 



X climb the hill : from end to end 
Of all the landscape underneath, 
X find no place that does not breathe 

Some gracious memory of my friend; 

]^o gray old grange, or lonely fold, 

Or low morass and whispering reed. 
Or simple stile from mead to mead. 

Or sheepwalk up the windy wold; 



]S[or hoary knoll of ash and haw 

Chat hears the latest linnet trill, 
r^or quarry trenched along the hill 

Hnd haunted by the wrangling daw ; 




134 




J^or runlet tinkling from the rock ; 
]^or pastoral rivulet that swerves 
Co left and right thro' meadowy curves, 

Chat feed the mothers of the flock; 

But each has pleased a kindred eye, 
Hnd each reflects a kindlier day; 
Hnd, leaving these, to pass away, 

I think once more he seems to die* 




Unwatch^d, the garden bough shall sway, 
Che tender blossom flutter down, 
Clnloved, that beech will gather brown, 

Chis maple burn itself away ; 

Clnloved, the sun-flower, shining fair, 

Ray round with flames her disk of seed, 
Hnd many a rose-carnation feed 

Cdith summer spice the humming ain; 




135 




Unloved^ by many a sandy bar, 

Cbe brook sball babble down tbe plain, 
Ht noon or wbcn tbe lesser wain 

Is twisting round tbe polar star; 



Uncared for, gird tbe windy grove, 

Hnd flood tbe baunts of bern and crake ; 
Or into silver arrows break 

Cbe sailing moon in creek and cove ; 



Cill from tbe garden and tbe wild 

H f resb association blow, 

Hnd year by year tbe landscape grow 
familiar to tbe stranger^s cbild; 



Hs year by year tbe labourer tills 

Ris wonted glebe, or lops tbe glades ; 
Hnd year by year our memory fades 

from all tbe circle of tbe bills. 



136 



IN MeMORIHM 



CH 



Ole leave the well-beloved place 

^bere first we gazed upon tbe eUy ; 
Cbe roofs, tbat beard our earliest cry, 

CClill sbelter one of stranger race* 

^e go, but ere we go from bome, 

Hs down tbe garden-walks X move, 
Cwo spirits of a diverse love 

Contend for loving masterdom* 

One wbispers, 'Rere tby boybood sung 
Long since its matin song, and beard 
Cbe low love-language of tbe bird 

In native bazels tassel-bung/ 

Cbe otber answers, ' Y^f hut bere 

Cby feet bave stra/d in after hours 
^ith thy lost friend among tbe bowers 

Hnd this bath made them trebly dear/ 



137 



Cbese two have striven half the d^y, 
Hud each prefers his separate claim, 
poor rivals in a losing game, 

Chat will not yield each other way^ 

X turn to go : my feet are set 

Co leave the pleasant fields and farms ; 

Co mix in one another^s arms 
Co one pure image of regret* 

cm 

On that last night before we went 

from out the doors where X was bred, 
X dreamed a vision of the dead, 

CClhich left my after-morn content* 



JMethought X dwelt within a hall, 

Hnd maidens with me : distant hills 
from hidden summits fed with rills 

H river sliding by the walU 




138 



IN MeiVIORIHM 

Che ball with harp and carol rang. 

Chcy sang of what is wise and good 
Hnd graceful* In the centre stood 

H statue veird, to which they sang ; 



Hnd which, tho* veird, was known to me, 
Che shape of him I loved, and love 
for ever: then flew in a dove 

Hnd brought a summons from the sea : 

Hnd when they learnt that I must go 

Chey wept and wail'd, but led the way 
Co where a little shallop lay, 

Ht anchor in the flood below : 



Hnd on by many a level mead, 

Hnd shadowing bluff that made the 
banks, 

Cle glided winding under ranks 
Of iris, and the golden reed ; 



^^^^ 



S5^^^>s! 



139 




Hnd 9tiU as vaster grew tbe shore 

Hnd roird the floods in grander space^ 
Che maidens gathered strength and grace 

Hnd presence^ lordlier than before; 



Hnd X myself, who sat apart 

Hnd watched them, wax'd in every limb ; 

X felt the thews of Hnakim, 
Che pulses of a Citan's heart ; 



Hs one would sing the death of war, 
Hnd one would chant the history 
Of that great race, which is to be, 

Hnd one the shaping of the star; 




Until the forward-creeping tides 
Began to foam, and we to draw 
from deep to deep, to where we saw 

H great ship lift her shining sides. 



140 




IN MeMORIHM 



Che man we loved was there on deck, 
But thrice as large as man he bent 
Co greet us* Op the side X went, 

Hnd fell in silence on his neck : 



CKhereat those maidens with one mind 
Bewaird their lot; I did them wrong : 
' Cde served thee here,* they said, *so long, 

Hnd wilt thou leave us now behind?' 



80 wrapt I was, they could not win 
Hn answer from my lips, but he 
Replying, * Gnter likewise ye 

Hnd go with us : ' they entered in* 



Hnd while the wind began to sweep 
H music out of sheet and shroud, 
CCle steered her toward a crimson cloud 

Chat landlike swept along the deep. 




Che time draws near the birth of Christ : 
Che moon is hid, the night is still ; 
H single church below the hill 

Is pealing, folded in the mist* 



H single peal of bells below, 

Chat wakens at this hour of rest 
H single murmur in the breast, 

Chat these are not the bells I know* 

Like strangers' voices here they sound. 
In lands where not a memory strays, 
]^or landmark breathes of other days, 

But all is new unhallowed ground* 



CT 

Co-night ungather'd let us leave 

Chis laurel, let this holly stand : 
Cde live within the stranger's land, 

Hnd strangely falls our Christmas-eve* 




H2 





Our father's dust is left alone 

Hnd silent under other snows : 
Chere in due time the woodbine blows, 

Che violet conies, but we are gone* 



]Vo more shall wa)nvard grief abuse 

Che genial hour with mask and mime ; 
for change of place, like growth of time, 

Ras broke the bond of dying use* 



Let cares that petty shadows cast. 

By which our lives are chiefly proved, 
H little spare the night X loved, 

Hnd hold it solemn to the past* 



But let no footstep beat the floor, 

]Vor bowl of wassail mantle warm ; 
for who would keep an ancient form 

Chro' which the spirit breathes no more? 



s^^^&i 



Si^ 



143 




Be neither song, nor game, nor feast; 

J^or harp be touched, nor flute be blown ; 

)^o dance, no motion, save alone 
Cdhat lightens in the lucid east 



Of rising worlds by yonder wood. 

Long sleeps the summer in the seed ; 

Run out your measured arcs, and lead 
Che closing cycle rich in good. 

CTI 

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, 
Che flying cloud, and frosty light: 
Che year is dying in the night; 

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die* 



Ring out the old, ring in the new. 

Ring, happy bells, across the snow : . 
Che year is going, let him go ; 

Ring out the false, ring in the true. 




144 



^^A^^^^p 



IN MeiMORIHM 

Ring out the grief that saps the mind, 
fbr those that here we see no more } 
Ring out the feud of rich and poor. 

Ring in redress to all mankind* 



Ring out a slowly d)nng cause, 

Hnd ancient forms of party strife; 
Ring in the nobler modes of life, 

CClith sweeter manners, purer laws* 



Ring out the want, the care, the sin, 
Che faithless coldness of the times ; 
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, 

But ring the fuller minstrel in* 



Ring out false pride in place and blood, 
Che civic slander and the spite; 
Ring in the love of truth and right. 

Ring in the common love of good* 



H5 



ml 



IN MeMORIHjM 

/ Ring out old shapes of foul disease ; 

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; 
Ring out the thousand wars of old. 
Ring in the thousand years of peace* 



B;" 



Ring in the valiant man and free, 

Che larger heart, the kindlier hand ; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 

Ring in the Christ that is to be. 




It is the day when he was born, 
H bitter day that early sank 
Behind a purple-frosty bank 

Of vapour, leaving night forlorn. 



Che time admits not flowers or leaves 
Co deck the banquet, fiercely flies 
Che blast of JVorth and 6ast, and ice 

JMakes daggers at the sharpened eaves, 



146 



IN MeMORIHM 

Hnd bristles all the brahcs and thorns 
Co yon hard crescent, as she hangs 
Hbove the wood which grides and clangs 

Its leafless ribs and iron horns 



Cogether, in the drifts that pass 
Co darken on the rolling brine 
Chat breaks the coast. But fetch the wine, 

Hrrange the board and brim the glass ; 



Bring in great logs and let them lie, 
Co make a solid core of heat ; 
Be cheerful-minded, talk and treat 

Of all things ev^n as he were by; 



Ulc keep the day, CClith festal cheer, 
^ith books and music, surely we 
CKill drink to him, whatever he be, 

Hnd sing the songs he loved to hear. 





14; 




I will not shut me from my feitid, 
Hud, lest I stiffen into stone, 
I will not eat my heart alone, 

I^or feed with sighs a passing wind: 

Cdhat profit lies in barren faith, 

Hnd vacant yearning, tho* with might 
Co scale the heaven's highest height. 

Or dive below the wells of Death ? 



^hat find I in the highest place. 

But mine own phantom chanting hymns? 
Hnd on the depths of death there swims 

Che reflex of a human face* 



III rather take what fruit may be 
Of sorrow under human shies : 
Xis held that sorrow makes us wise, 

Cdhatever wisdom sleep with thee* 




148 



IN MejMORIHM 



CIX 



Reart-aff luence in discursive talk 

from household fountains never dry; 
Che critic clearness of an eye. 

Chat saw thro^ all the JMuses' walk ; 

Seraphic intellect and force 

Co seize and throw the doubts of man ; 

Impassioned logic, which outran 
Che hearer in its- fiery course: 

Righ nature amorous of the good. 

But touched with no ascetic gloom ; 
Hnd passion pure in snowy bloom 

Chro' all the years of Hpril blood ; 



H love of freedom rarely felt, 
Of freedom in her regal seat 
Of england; not the schoolboy heat, 

Che blind hysterics of the Celt ; 



Hnd manhood fused with female grace 
In such a sort^ the child would twine 
H trustful band, unask'd, in thine, 

Hnd find his comfort in thy face ; 

Hll these have been, and thee mine eyes 
Rave look'd on: if they look'd in vain, 
JMy shame is greater who remain, 

I^or let thy wisdom make me wise* 

CX 

Chy converse drew us with delight, 
Che men of rathe and riper years : 
Che feeble soul, a haunt of fears, 

forgot his weakness in thy sight. 

On thee the loyal-hearted hung, 

Che proud was half disarmed of pride, 
]Vor cared the serpent at thy side 

Co flicker with his double tongue. 




150 



IN MeMORIHM 

Che etern were wild when thou wert by, 
Che flippant put himself to school 
Hnd heard thee, and the brazen fool 

Cdas soften'd and he knew not why ; 

aihile I, thy nearest, sat apart, 

Hnd felt thy triumph was as mine ; 
Hnd loved them more, that they were 
thine, 

Che graceful tact, the Christian art; 



]Sor mine the sweetness or the skill. 
But mine the love that will not tire, 
Hnd, born of love, the vague desire 

Chat spurs an imitative will. 




^5* 




Che churl in spirit, however he veil 

Ris want in forms for f ashion^s sake, 
Cdill let his coltish nature break 

Ht seasons thro' the gilded pale: 



for who can always act? but he, 

Co whom a thousand memories call, 
]Vot being less but more than all 

Che gentleness he seemed to be, 



Best seemed the thing he was, and joined 
6ach office of the social hour 
Co noble manners, as the flower 

Hnd native growth of noble mind ; 



]Vor ever narrowness or spite. 
Or villain fancy fleeting by, 
Drew in the expression of an eye, 

CClhere God and JVature met in light ; 




^5^ 



IN MeMORIHM 

Hnd thus be bore witbout abuse 

Cbe grand old name of gentleman, 
Defamed by every cbarlatan, 

Hnd soiVd with all ignoble use* 

CXIl 

Digb wisdom holds my wisdom less, 

Chat Xf who gaze with temperate eyes 
On glorious insufficiencies, 

Set light by narrower perf ectness* 

But thou, that f illest all the room 
Of all my love, art reason why 
X seem to cast a careless eye 

On souls, the lesser lords of doom. 

for what wert thou ? some novel power 
Sprang up for ever at a touch, 
Hnd hope could never hope too much. 

In watching thee from hour to hour, 



153 



IN MejMORlHM 

Large elements in order brought, 

Hnd tracts of calm from tempest made, 
Hnd world-wide fluctuation swa^d 

In vassal tides that followed thought* 

CXIII 

Xis held that sorrow makes us wise ; 

y^ct how much wisdom sleeps with thee 
^hich not alone had guided me, 

But served the seasons that may rise; 

for can I doubt, that knew thee keen 
In intellect, with force and skill 
Co strive, to fashion, to fulfil — 

I doubt not what thou wouldst have been ; 



H life in civic action warm, 

H soul on highest mission sent, 
H potent voice of parliament, 

H pillar steadfast in the storm. 




154 



IN MeiMORlHM 

Should licensed boldness gather force. 
Becoming, when the time has birth, 
H lever to uplift the earth 

Hnd roll it in another course, 

Cdith thousand shocks that come and go, 
^ith agonies, with energies, 
Cdith overthrowings, and with cries, 

Hnd undulations to and fro. 

CXIT 

Olho loves not Knowledge ? Cdho shall rail 
Hgainst her beauty ? )VIay she mix 
Cdith men and prosper ! dho shall fix 

Rer pillars ? Let her work prevail. 

But on her forehead sits a fire: 

She sets her forward countenance 
Hnd leaps into the future chance. 

Submitting all things to desire. 



^55 




f>alf -grown as yet, a child, and vain — 
She cannot fight the fear of death* 
Cdhat is she, cut from love and faith, 

But some wild pallas from the brain 



Of Demons ? fiery-hot to burst 
Hll barriers in her onward race 
for power* Let her know her place : 

She is the second, not the first* 



H higher hand must make her mild, 
If all be not in vain ; and guide 
Rer footsteps, moving side by side 

CKith wisdom, lihe the younger child : 



for she is earthly of the mind. 

But Cdisdom heavenly of the soul. 
O, friend, who camest to thy goal 

So early, leaving me behind, 




156 



IN MeiVIORlHM 

X would the great world grow like thee, 
^bo grewest not alone in power 
Hnd knowledge, but by year and hour 

In reverence and in charity* 

CXT 

]^ow fades the last long streak of snow, 
)Vow burgeons every maze of quick 
Hbout the flowering squares, and thick 

By ashen roots the violets blow. 

]Vow rings the woodland loud and long, 
Che distance takes a lovelier hue, 
Hnd drowned in yonder living blue 

Che lark becomes a sightless song* 



Now dance the lights on lawn and lea, 
Che flocks are whiter down the vale, 
Hnd milkier every milky sail 

On winding stream or distant sea; 




157 



IN MeiMORIHM 

^here now the seamew pipes or dives 
In yonder greening gleam, and fly 
Cbe happy birds that change their sky 

Co build and brood ; that live their lives 

from land to land ; and in my breast 
Spring wakens too ; and my regret 
Becomes an Hpril violet, 

Hnd buds and blossoms like the rest* 

CXTI 

Is it, then, regret for buried time 

Chat keenlier in sweet Hpril wakes, 
Hnd meets the year, and gives and takes 

Che colours of the crescent prime ? 



]Vot all : the songs, the stirring air, 
Che life, re-orient out of dust. 
Cry thro* the sense to hearten trust 

In that which made the world so fair. 




)^ot all regret: the face will shine 
Upon me, while I muse alone ; 
Hnd that dear voice, X once have known, 

Still speak to me, of me and mine : 

Y«t less of sorrow lives in me 

for days of happy commune dead ; 
Less yearning for the friendship fled, 

Chan some strong bond which is to be. 

CXTII 

O days and hours, your work is this ; 
Co hold me from my proper place, 
H little while from his embrace, 

for fuller gain of after bliss : 

Chat out of distance might ensue 
Desire of nearness doubly sweet : 
Hnd unto meeting when we meet, 

Delight a hundredfold accrue, 



t59 



for every grain of sand that runs, 

Hnd every span of shade that steals, 
Hnd every hiss of toothed wheels. 

Hnd all the courses of the suns. 

CXTin 

Contemplate all this work of Cime, 
Che giant labouring in his youth ; 
]Vor dream of human love and truth, 

Hs dying JS^ature's earth and lime ; 

But trust that those we call the dead 
Hre breathers of an ampler day 
for ever nobler ends* Chey say, 

Che solid earth whereon we tread 

In tracts of fluent heat began, 

Hnd grew to seeming-random forms, 
Che seeming prey of cyclic storms, 

Cill at the last arose the man; 



]6o 



IN MeiMORlHM 

Cdho throve and branched f rotn cUme to 
cUmet 
Che herald of a higher race, 
Hnd of himself in higher place. 

If 90 he type this work of time 

CClithin himself, from more to more, 
Or, crown'd with attributes of woe 
Like glories, move his course, and show 

Chat life is not an idle ore, 



But iron dug from central gloom, 

Hnd heated hot with burning fears, 
Hnd dipt in baths of hissing tears, 

Hnd battered with the shocks of doom 



Co shape and use* Hrise and fly 

Che reeling faun, the sensual feast ; 
JMove upward, working out the beast, 

Hnd let the ape and tiger die* 



i6i 



IN MeMORlHM 



CXIX 



Doors, where my heart was used to beat 
80 quickly^, not as one that weeps 
I come once more; the city sleeps; 

I smell the meadow in the street; 

I hear a chirp of birds ; I see 

Betwixt the black fronts long- withdrawn 
H light-blue lane of early dawn, 

Hnd think of early days and thee, 

Hnd bless thee, for thy lips are bland, 

Hnd bright the friendship of thine eye; 
Hnd in my thoughts with scarce a sigh 

X take the pressure of thine hand* 



CXX 

I trust I have not wasted breath : 
I think we are not wholly brain, 
JMagnetic mockeries ; not in vain. 

Like Paul with beast, I fought with Death; 




i62 




IN MeMORIHM 

Not only cunning casts in clay : 

Let Science prove we are, and then 
CClbat matters Science unto men, 

Ht least to me ? I would not stay* 

Let bim, the wiser man who springs 
Hereafter, up from childhood shape 
Ris action, lihe the greater ape. 

But I was born to other things* 



CXXI 

Sad Resper o'er the buried sun 

Hnd ready, thou, to die with him, 
Chou watchest all things ever dim 

Hnd dimmer, and a glory done : 



Che team is loosened from the wain, 
Che boat is drawn upon the shore; 
Chou listenest to the closing door, 

Hnd life is darkened in the brain* 




163 




Bright phosphor, fresher for the night, 
Sy thee the world^s great work is heard 
Beginning, and the wakeful bird ; 

Behind thee conies the greater light: 

Che market boat is on the stream, 
Hnd voices hail it from the brink ; 
Chou hear'st the village hammer clink, 

Hnd see^st the moving of the team. 

Sweet Resper-phosphor, double name 
for what is one, the first, the last, 
Chou, like my present and my past, 

Chy place is changed; thou art the same* 

CXXII 

O, wast thou with me, dearest, then, 
^hile I rose up against my doom, 
Hnd yearned to burst the folded gloom, 

Co bare the eternal Heavens again. 




164 



m 



IN MeMORlHM 

Co feel once more in placid awe, 
Cbe strong imagination roll 
H sphere of stars about my soul. 

In all her motion one with law ; 



If tbou wert with me, and the grave 
Divide us not, be with me now, 
Hnd enter in at breast and brow, 

Oil all my blood, a fuller wave, 



Be quichen'd with a livelier breath, 
Hnd like an inconsiderate boy, 
Hs in the former flash of joy, 

I slip the thoughts of life and death ; 



Hnd all the breeze of fancy blows, 
Hnd every dew-drop paints a bow, 
Che wizard lightnings deeply glow, 

Hnd every thought breaks out a rose* 



165 




Chere rolls the deep where grew the tree* 
O earth, what changes hast thou seen ! 
Cherewherethelongstreetroars^hathbeen 

Che stillness of the central sea* 

Che hills are shadows, and they flow 

f^rom form to form, and nothing stands ; 
Chey melt like mist, the solid lands. 

Like clouds they shape themselves and go* 

But in my spirit will X dwell, 

Hnd dream my dream, and hold it true ; 

fbr tho* my lips may breathe adieu, 
X cannot think the thing farewell* 



CXXIT 

Chat which we dare invoke to bless ; 

Our dearest faith; our ghastliest doubt; 

Re, Chey, One, Hll ; within, without ; 
Che power in darkness whom we guess ; 




166 



IN MeiMORlHM 

I found him not in world or sun, 
Or eagle's wing, or insecf s eye; 
JVor tbro' the questions men may try, 

Cbe petty cobwebs we bave spun : 



If e'er wben f aitb bad f all'n asleep, 
I beard a voice ^believe no more' 
Hnd beard an ever-breafeing sbore 

Cbat tumbled in tbe Godless deep ; 



H warmtb witbin tbe breast would melt 
Cbe freezing reason's colder part, 
Hnd like a man in wratb tbe beart 

Stood up and answered 'I bave felt/ 



]^o, lihe a cbild in doubt and fear: 

But tbat blind clamour made me wise j 
Cben was I as a cbild tbat cries. 

But, crying, knows bis fatber near; 




IN MeiMORIHM 

Hud what I am beheld again 

^hat is, and no man understands ; 

Hnd out of darkness came the hands 
Chat reach thro' nature, moulding men. 



Whatever I have said or sung, 

Some bitter notes my harp would give, 
Yea, tho* there often seem'd to live 

H contradiction on the tongue, 



Yet Rope had never lost her youth; 

She did but look through dimmer eyes; 

Or Love but play'd with gracious lies. 
Because he felt so fix'd in truth: 



Hnd if the song were full of care, 

Re breathed the spirit of the song; 
Hnd if the words were sweet and strong 

T>c set his royal signet there; 







168 



^S^^^^^l 



IN MeMORIHM 

Hbiding with me till I sail 

Co seek tbee on the mystic deeps^ 
Hnd this electric force, that keeps 

H thousand pulses dancing, fail* 

CXXTI 

Love is and was my Lord and King, 
Hnd in his presence I attend 
Co hear the tidings of my friend, 

^hich every hour his couriers bring* 

Love is and was my King and Lord, 
Hnd will be, tho* as yet I keep 
Within his court on earth, and sleep 

6ncompass^d by his faithful guard, 

Hnd hear at times a sentinel 

^ho moves about from place to place, 
Hnd whispers to the worlds of space. 

In the deep night, that all is welt 



169 



IN MeMORIHlM 



cxxrci 



Hnd all is well, tbo' faith and form 
Be sunder'd in the night of fear; 
Cdell roars the storm to those that hear 

H deeper voice across the storm, 

proclaiming social truth shall spread, 
Hnd justice, ev'n tho' thrice again 
Che red fool-fury of the Seine 

Should pile her barricades with dead* 

But ill for him that wears a crown, 
Hnd him, the lazar, in his rags : 
Chey tremble, the sustaining crags; 

Che spires of ice are toppled down. 



Hnd molten up, and roar in flood; 

Che fortress crashes from on high, 
Che brute earth lightens to the sky, 

Hnd the great lEon sinks in blood. 



170 




IN MeMORIHM 

Hnd compassed by the fires of Rell ; 
^bilc thout dear spiritt happy star, 
O'erlook'st the tumult from afar, 

Hnd smilest, knowing all is welU 

CXXTIII 

Che love that rose on stronger wings, 
Unpalsied when he met with Death, 
Is comrade of the lesser faith 

Chat sees the course of human things* 

]Vo doubt vast eddies in the flood 

Of onward time shall yet be made, 
Hnd throned races may degrade; 

Yet O ye mysteries of good, 



Olild Rours that fly with Rope and fear. 
If all your office had to do 
CClith old results that look like new ; 

If this were all your mission here. 






^^ 




IN MeiMORIHM 

Co draw, to sheathe a useless sword, 
Co fool the crowd with glorious lies, 
Co cleave a creed in sects and cries, 

Co change the bearing of a word, 

Co shift an arbitrary power, 

Co cramp the student at his desk, 
Co make old bareness picturesque 

Hnd tuft with grass a feudal tower ; 

dhy then my scorn might well descend 
On you and yours* X see in part 
Chat all, as in some piece of art. 

Is toil co-operant to an end* 

CXXIX 

Dear friend, far off, my lost desire. 
Bo far, so near in woe and weal; 
O loved the most, when most I feel 

Chere is a lower and a higher ; 



17^ 




IN MeMORIHM 

Known and unknown ; human, divine ; 

Sweet human hand and lips and eye; 

Dear heavenly friend that canst not die, 
JVIine, mine, for ever, ever mine; 

Strange friend, past, present, and to he; 

L^ved deeplier, darklier understood; 

Behold, I dream a dream of good, 
Hnd mingle all the world with thee. 

CXXX 

Chy voice is on the rolling air; 

X hear thee where the waters run ; 

Chou standest in the rising sun, 
Hnd in the setting thou art fain 



Olhat art thou then ? 1 cannot guess ; 
But tho' I seem in star and flower 
Co feel thee some diffusive power, 

I do not therefore love thee less: 



IN MeMORlHM 

^y love involves the love before; 

jMy love is vaster passion now; 

Cho* mix^d with God and J^ature thou, 
X seem to love thee more and more* 

far off thou art, but ever nigh; 

X have thee still and I rejoice; 

X prosper, circled with thy voice; 
X shall not lose thee tho' X die. 

CXXXI 

O living will that shalt endure 

^hcn all that seems shall suffer shock. 

Rise in the spiritual rock, 
flow thro' our deeds and make them pure, 




Chat we may lift from out of dust 
H voice as unto him that hears, 
H cry above the conquered years 

Co one that with us works, and trust, 




^74 




^tth faith that comes of self-controU 
Che truths that never can be proved 
Until we close with all we loved^ 

Hnd all we flow from, soul in souU 



O true and tried, so well and long. 
Demand not thou a marriage lay; 
In that it is thy marriage day 

Is music more than any song« 



f^or have I felt so much of bliss 

Since first he told me that he loved 
H daughter of our house ; nor proved 

Since that dark day a day like this ; 

Cho^ I since then have numbered o'er 

Some thrice three years : they went and 

came, 
Remade the blood and changed the frame, 

Hnd yet is love not less, but more ; 



^75 




IN MeMORIHM 

JS^or longer caring to embalm 

In dying songs a dead regret, 
But like a statue solid set, 

Hnd moulded in colossal calm* 



(A 



Regret is dead, but love is more 

Chan in the summers that are flown, 
for I myself with these have grown 

Co something greater than before; 



Cdhich makes appear the songs I made 
Hs echoes out of weaker times, 
Hs half but idle brawling rhymes, 

Che sport of random sun and shade* 






But where is she, the bridal flower. 

Chat must be made a wife ere noon ? 
She enters, glowing like the moon 

Of eden on its bridal bower : 



i 



176 



IN MeMORlHM 

On me she bends her blissful eyes 

Hnd then on thee; they meet thy looh 
Hnd brighten like the star that shook 

Betwixt the palms of paradise* 



O when her life was yet in bud, 
T>c too foretold the perfect rose* 
for thee she grew, for thee she grows 

for ever and as fair as good* 



Hnd thou art worthy; full of power; 
Hs gentle ; liberal-minded, great, 
Consistent; wearing all that weight 

Of learning lightly like a flower* 



But now set out : the noon is near, 
Hnd I must give away the bride ; 
She fears not, or with thee beside 

Hnd me behind her, will not fear. 




for I that danced her on my knee, 

Chat watch'd her on her nurse's arm, 
Chat shielded all her life from harm, 

Bt last must part with her to thee: 



Wi> 



]Vow waiting to be made a wife, 

Rer feet, my darling, on the dead ; 
Cheir pensive tablets round her head, 

Hnd the most living words of life 



Breathed in her ean Che ring is on, 
Che *wilt thou* answered, and again 
Che 'wilt thou* ash'd, till out of twain 

Rer sweet *X will* has made you one» 



]^ow sign your names, which shall be read, 
JMute symbols of a joyful morn, 
By village eyes as yet unborn ; 

Che names are signed, and overhead 



IN MeMORIHM 

Begins the clash and clang that tells 
Che joy to every wandering breeze ; 
Che blind wall rocks, and on the trees 

Che dead leaf trembles to the bells* 



O happy hour, and happier hours 
Hwait them. JMany a merry face 
Salutes them— maidens of the place, 

Chat pelt us in the porch with flowers. 



O happy hour, behold the bride 

<aith him to whom her hand I gave. 
Chey leave the porch, they pass the grave 

Chat has to-day its sunny side. 




Co-day the grave is bright for me, 

for them the light of life increased, 
Cdho stay to share the morning 
beside the sea* 



179 



Let all my genial spirits advance 
Co meet and greet a whiter sun; 
JAy drooping memory will not shun 

Che foaming grape of eastern firance* 



It circles round, and fancy plays, 

Hnd hearts are warmed and faces bloom, 
Hs drinking health to bride and groom 

5Cle wish them store of happy days* 



]Vor count me all to blame, if I 
Conjecture of a stiller guest, 
perchance, perchance, among the rest, 

Hnd, tho' in silence, wishing joy* 



But they must go, the time draws on, 

Hnd those white-favoured horses wait; 
Chey rise, but linger ; it is late ; 

farewell, we kiss, and they are gone. 




180 



IN MeMORIHM 

H shade falls on us like the dark 

from little cloudlets on the grass, 
But sweeps away as out we pass 

Co range the woods, to roam the park, 



Discussing bow their courtship grew, 
Hnd talk of others that are wed, 
Hnd how she looked, and what he said, 

Hnd back we come at fall of dew* 



Hgain the feast, the speech, the glee, 

Che shade of passing thought, the wealth 
Of words and wit, the double health, 

Che crowning cup, the three-times-three. 



Hnd last the dance;— till I retire: 

Dumb is that tower which spake so loud, 
Hnd high in heaven the streaming cloud, 

Hnd on the downs a rising fire: 




IN MeMORIHM 

Hnd rise, O moon, from >n3nder down, 
CiU over down and over dale 
HU night the shining vapour sail 

Hnd pass the silent-lighted town, 



Che white-faced halls, the glancing rills, 
Hnd catch at every mountain head, 
Hnd o^er the friths that branch and 
spread 

Cheir sleeping silver thro* the hills; 

Hnd touch with shade the bridal doors, 
Cdith tender gloom the roof, the wall 
Hnd breaking let the splendour fall 

Co spangle all the happy shores 



By which they rest, and ocean sounds, 
Hnd, star and system rolling past, 
H soul shall draw from out the vast 

Hnd strike his being into bounds, 




182 



IN MeiMORlHM 

Hnd^ moved thro' life of lower phase^ 
Result in man, be born and think, 
Hnd act and love, a closer link 

Betwijct us and the crowning race 



Of those that, eye to eye, shall look 

On knowledge; under whose command 
Is Garth and Garth's, and in their hand 

Is feature like an open book ; 



1^0 longer half -akin to brute, 

for all we thought and loved and did, 
Hnd hoped, and suffered, is but seed 

Of what in them is flower and fruit; 



thereof the man that with me trod 
Chis planet, was a noble type 
Hppearing ere the times were ripe. 

Chat friend of mine who lives in God, 







Chat God, which ever lives and loves, 
One God, one law, one element, 
Hnd one far-off divine event, 

Co which the whole creation moves* 




^•^ ' I'.-i. 



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